The windows registry gets subverted and/or bloated with current computer consumption over time. This flows from primarily to the aggregation of keys that are rendered all time we install/uninstall software package, which can as well lead crumbled entries.

Making a cosmopolitan alteration to the system settings through with unceasing consumption of your computer is also hived away inside the system and appends to the stockpile. Enclosed keys that are lumbered by malware computer programs in the registry can congest the system. All these errors going on in the system will drive it to become unsound and slower as the legal keys can’t be accessed in good order and/or fast enough by your computers operating system.

To acquire your computers performance back and guarantee fluent operation, you need to repair the errors.

Are you having troubles like automatic restarts, really slow computer operation and non responding software programs? Well then, you need to repair these errors by scanning your PC to discover the troubles as soon as possible. Software package like Registry Easy is the most efficient and simplest way to amend the problem. It’s promptly accessible, easy to install and smooth to use. Using Registry Easy to scan and automatically repair the errors is naïve, quick and the intelligent way to go.

Are you using Windows XP or Vista? Should you use Registry Easy?

The software is 100% compatible with Windows XP and Windows Vista. The Download or Free Trial will scan and diagnose your registry problems in bare instants permitting you to save time and unquestionably the trouble trying to fix your it yourself.

ATI technologies is a company that has a name synonymous with graphics cards and on board computer peripherals and most gamers would know them by their famous graphics cards. Basically, there are two names when it comes to graphics cards on the market, and forgetting about the Voodoo name that disappeared a long time ago, we have ATI and Nvidia going at it neck and neck on the gamers market. In fact, if would not surprise you to find out that the gaming and graphics card industry is one that is worth millions of dollars a year.

This is really one hell of an industry that is driving the momentum of computing technology. One of the largest buyers on the market of new products and computer goods is the gamer, who would on average, spend no less than a few thousand dollars every time they do a major upgrade. And this includes things like processor chips, on board ram, motherboards, new computer technology, massive PSU power units, sound cards, peripherals and of course the almighty graphics card. All of this drives the computer industry forward, with billions of dollars being poured into research and development as well.  

When you purchase one of ATI’s graphics solutions, what you get is a GPU, or graphics processing unit, one of the core features of all modern cards that you should know about. When you consider this, the sort of technology is quite modern, in fact, leaps and bounds ahead of what it used to be a few years ago. But of course, the very core, the very structure of it remains the same in the sense that while the technology increases, the way that Windows communicates with this is that it uses drivers. Even with this product, there are plenty of things that can go wrong with it. The first is that Windows cannot even recognise the product, which means that the drivers were not installed correctly in the first place, and you need to do a quick re detect and re install.  

Or, there may be some functions that do not seem to work or Windows prompts you to a driver conflict; all you have to do is go online and get the latest drivers from their website. The last problem and the most common one is that when you are playing a game, there are artefacts or the whole game slows downs and eventually crashes. This is also a normal reaction to old drivers or conflicts, and the trouble shoot is to simply update not only your graphics drivers, but the Direct X drivers as well to make sure that everything works like it should. These are some of the three common ATI driver errors and simple trouble shooting tips that you can follow to make things right with your ATI graphics card. The graphics card is usually a substantial investment that needs to be taken care of and the last thing you would want is to see your few hundred dollar card not work.

The registry performs an extremely crucial role in your Windows computer — it stores important files most programs require to run. Over time and as a result of changes made by you each time you add new programs, upgrade software, and/or delete programs, the registry tends to accumulate many unwanted files. These, in turn, negatively impact your computer’s processing speed, slowing it down and causing errors and other problems to accumulate with time. When you notice your computer performing sluggishly it’s definitely time to clean and optimize your computer’s registry.

Top Three Tips When Cleaning Your Windows Registry

Tip #1 — Back up your system! After you backup do nothing other than work with cleaning the registry as even minute changes (e.g., using your mouse) creates a file in your registry.

Tip #2 — Close all programs, including your internet browser, while running registry cleaning software. This optimizes registry cleaning effects.

Tip #3 – When using programs that ask you whether or not to perform a particular deletion action, do not delete any registry key if you’re doubtful of its use.

Benefits of Cleaning Your PC Registry

Without a doubt the registry plays an important role in operating your computer. It contains the most essential data required to run the programs installed on your computer. Over time and based on your usage patterns the registry accumulates trash because it records every single activity you perform.

In the past I used to experience these problems myself. Whenever my system slowed down noticeably I realized it was time to clean the PC registry. I no longer do this since installing an excellent program that checks my registry once each day at a time scheduled by me. This program cleans my registry automatically. Now my computer performs in optimum condition – in fact, it performs better than when I initially set it up three years ago.

This less than $30 investment keeps my computer in top condition at all times, protects my important files and prevents valuable programs from being corrupted and becoming inaccessible if the system crashes.

Find the Best Registry Cleaner Software for Your PC

It’s easy to find registry programs to run scans on your computer. It’s not so easy to identify programs that do the job best for the lowest price. For example,

How much time does it take to scan?

Does the registry cleaner return an accurate and precise scan?

Can it repair damages to your registry without you having to know a thing about how it works?

Will it provide easy updates?

How is the customer service?

What are some of the advertised special features and are these really “special?”

When you can answer all these questions with a “yes” you have found the best registry cleaner software for your PC.

I recommend you read my reviews of the top registry products located at my website. While you’re there take a look at some of the testimonials and feedback from people who have actual experience in using the products.

The next time you are having trouble with your computer, use this checklist to troubleshoot the problem before you pick up your phone to call for help. Whether your processor slows down, starts behaving strangely of totally crashes, you may be able to get your PC back to peak performance with just a few basic troubleshooting tricks. Try this before calling the repair shop. Don’t ignore the problem; it’s not going to go away. But try these troubleshooting tricks before you call the expensive computer technician. Chances are that if you call the repair shop or the tech support hot-line, the person who answers your call will have less experience than you. Save yourself the time, inconvenience and expense by utilizing these 12 suggestions and procedures to dig out system misworkings, process shutdowns, and strange Windows actions independently. Never overlook what would seem to be the obvious.

The first thing to always do when experiencing any problem with equipment not starting or working as it should is to check for the usual disruptions: unplugged or loose cords or cables, a power outage that has occurred, or a monitor that should have been on but somehow got powered down. If none of the above seems to be the cause, try restarting your computer or modem. This easy step helps to fix several randomly occurring errors. You know better than anyone what the personality of your computer is, so ask yourself, “What has changed?” If you have installed a new hardware or software in the recent past, shut it down. Check for icons in the system tray to make sure that there is not a program running in the background. If the icon is present, just right-click the icon and select Exit or Close from the menu. Then try and look for a program listing under the Processes button in your Task Manager, then press the Ctrl,Alt and Delete buttons at the same time to open up the utility. You could also just uninstall the application entirely. If you have recently modified any of your device drivers, go back to the previous one by using the rollback function for Windows’ device drivers. You can find full instructions in Microsoft Knowledge Base 283657. Part One: Divide and Conquer. You can check if an auto-start application is causing the problem by opening the System Configuration utility (a.k.a. “Msconfig”) To turn off all startup programs, press the windows key and “R” key then type msconfig and press enter.

Click on Selective Startup under the General tab, then uncheck Load Startup Items. Inside the General tab, click on Selective Startup option and uncheck the box next to Load Startup Items. If the problem goes away, come back to Msconfig, click on Normal Startup inside the General tab, choose the Startup tab, and activate your autostart programs one by one until the problem occurs again, at which point of time you’ve located the source of the trouble. Software Explorer, which is part of Windows Defender, is designed to manage startup programs and it’s built right into Vista. Microsoft offers a free AutoRuns utility, which also runs in XP; this is much easier to use and less clumsy than Software Explorer. Strategies and techniques for troubling times: Always try System Restore once. If you don’t know what is causing your problem, and it just appeared recently, System Restore might be of use in restoring your PC’s function.

Click on the Start button, then All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore, in that sequence. From the options provided, select “Restore my computer to an earlier time” then click “Next” and simply follow the prompts that you will be given. See Woody Leonhard’s expert tips for even more information on System Restore in the February 16, 2006 paid version. A different profile may work. Log off of your account and log on again under an alternate one. If you can’t do that because you don’t have another account, then make a new one. A secondary account can be useful if you have a problem with your main account. Create a new user account by first opening Windows’ User Accounts Control Panel applet.

Then click on Create a new account and follow the steps that are displayed. In Microsoft Vista, you will have to click the add or remove user accounts, or manage another account, before you start to create a new account, hence if the problem doesn’t present itself in the other accounts, there is an error in your profile, in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER section of the Registry. You can use the second profile as your main user account, but you will still be required to reinstall some software and replace the custom settings from your original profile. Despite that fact, it is a better alternative to reinstalling Windows. Be sure to select the “Last Known Good” setting. After booting your computer, try pressing F8 before Windows starts if you cannot log into Windows.

Select “Last Known Good Configuration” option using arrow keys on the “Windows Advanced Options” screen. Selecting this will undo the latest changes made to your computer’s configuration. If using this option lets you restart Windows properly, you may have fixed the problem. It is not that Last Known Good Configuration can resolve every issue, but like many of these troubleshooting strategies, it’s worth attempting. Try Safe Mode resolution. If in any case Last Known Good Configuration fails to restart Windows normally, press the function key F8 on startup again to go back to the Windows Advanced Options Menu, but this time you need to choose Safe Mode (or Safe Mode with Networking if you need to access the Internet or a network resource).

Safe Mode can’t fix anything, but it will attempt to open Windows with some very basic drivers. The problem in your computer is likely to be a device driver if you can start Windows in Safe Mode. Once you know what the problem is, you can also use Safe Mode to fix it. There’s more about this in the next tip. Activate boot logging feature. If you think the problem might involve a specific driver or is related to your hardware, look through your Windows boot logs for detailed information. Pressing F8 during startup will open the Windows Advanced Options Menu, which is where you will find the option of enabling boot logging. In order to start Windows with boot logging activated, arrow down to select Enable Boot Logging and press the Enter key.

Pressing Win+R and then typing c:\windows\ntbklog.text and hitting enter will open up the log file. The boot log will add new information at the bottom of the file, so you will have to scroll down to see if it has added any helpful information. Keep an eye out for entries that might show a problem with loading a driver. When you log into Windows using the Safe Mode, it will show you a log of all drivers Safe Mode doesn’t use; thus this boot log is not really going to be of any use in determining which drivers may be causing the problem. Part Two: Divide and Conquer. Msconfig is a great tool to help isolate the problem if you think it is a driver or other system file. But first, a warning: Using Msconfig utility to temporarily deactivate Windows services will erase restore points made by System Restore. This method should only be used if you are absolutely sure that you won’t need any of the restore points that currently exist and the problem was not corrected by using System Restore. On the keyboard press Win+R, type the command msconfig, and hit the Enter key. Then find the tab that says “General”, choose “Diagnostic startup” and then click “OK”. Follow each of the steps in order to successfully restart your computer. If the problem goes away, you can add other system files back in with the Selective Startup option on the General tab to narrow down the possibilities and check whether the problem lies in System.ini, wini.ini, services, and so on.

When you have gotten your search nailed down to a particular area, get more refined by turning on specific items using the check boxes under the other Msconfig tabs. Get additional details from Windows. In some cases your system will automatically reboot when a crash occurs. You will be unable to check for possible reasons why you are auto rebooting because of this Windows feature. To stop auto restarts after your computer crashes, reboot and press F8 right before Windows load to bring you to the Windows Advanced Options Menu. By using the arrow keys, you will then be able to select Disable automatic restart on system failure. Choosing Properties, Advanced from the menu you get in XP when you right-click on My Computer will allow you to either turn the feature back on or off, depending on its current setting, without restarting your computer. Find the tab that says “Startup and Recovery” and then click “Settings”.

Under Automatic Restart, there is a checkbox that you can use to enable or disable the feature. In Windows Vista, press Start, type the command SystemPropertiesAdvanced, and hit Enter. Click on the Continue button when prompted to by User Account Control. After clicking the Advanced tab, choose Settings in Startup and Recovery. You can manage the Automatic Restart option by checking or unchecking the box below it. The next time you have an unexpected reboot, an error message should display on your screen with possibly the name of the file that may have caused this error. It might be helpful to do a Web search for the specific file name to find out more details. The possible components of the video driver you are using that might have caused your system to fail will be displayed by Windows. If the answer is yes, inquiring about recent driver modifications on the Website of your video card maker could be the answer.

Check your system files. Windows has a tool that allows you to check the integrity of the files it requires to function properly which you can use to examine, and replace files if required. System File Checker will examine your files and offer to replace with the original if any problem with an original file is found. Open a Command Prompt window with Administrator rights, type sfc /scannow, and hit the Enter key on the keyboard. You might need to insert your Windows installation CD for retrieval of the original file. There are two published articles available from Microsoft regarding the proper use of this tool: one covers its use in Windows XP and Server 2003, the other is a guide to using it in Vista. Consult a troubleshooter. It’ll be difficult if you’re a man – it’s like asking for directions. In certain cases, the troubleshooting guides in Windows Help can be helpful, although they can often miss the mark.

The guides can be accessed by choosing Start, then Help and Support. Look for some form of the word “troubleshoot”. Perform a distinct search for each of these terms since there is a high likelihood of getting differing results depending on the search term. Be tenacious, but have a get away plan. A long time acquaintance and exceptional troubleshooter told me, “When nothing has worked, fiddle with it.” Unrelenting pursuit The next time you are having trouble with your computer, use this checklist to troubleshoot the problem before you pick up your phone to call for help. Whether your processor slows down, starts behaving strangely of totally crashes, you may be able to get your PC back to peak performance with just a few basic troubleshooting tricks. Try this before calling the repair shop. Don’t ignore the problem; it’s not going to go away. But try these troubleshooting tricks before you call the expensive computer technician. Chances are that if you call the repair shop or the tech support hot-line, the person who answers your call will have less experience than you. Save yourself the time, inconvenience and expense by utilizing these 12 suggestions and procedures to dig out system misworkings, process shutdowns, and strange Windows actions independently. Never overlook what would seem to be the obvious.

The first thing to always do when experiencing any problem with equipment not starting or working as it should is to check for the usual disruptions: unplugged or loose cords or cables, a power outage that has occurred, or a monitor that should have been on but somehow got powered down. If none of the above seems to be the cause, try restarting your computer or modem. This easy step helps to fix several randomly occurring errors. You know better than anyone what the personality of your computer is, so ask yourself, “What has changed?” If you have installed a new hardware or software in the recent past, shut it down. Check for icons in the system tray to make sure that there is not a program running in the background. If the icon is present, just right-click the icon and select Exit or Close from the menu. Then try and look for a program listing under the Processes button in your Task Manager, then press the Ctrl,Alt and Delete buttons at the same time to open up the utility. You could also just uninstall the application entirely. If you have recently modified any of your device drivers, go back to the previous one by using the rollback function for Windows’ device drivers. You can find full instructions in Microsoft Knowledge Base 283657. Part One: Divide and Conquer. You can check if an auto-start application is causing the problem by opening the System Configuration utility (a.k.a. “Msconfig”) To turn off all startup programs, press the windows key and “R” key then type msconfig and press enter.

Click on Selective Startup under the General tab, then uncheck Load Startup Items. Inside the General tab, click on Selective Startup option and uncheck the box next to Load Startup Items. If the problem goes away, come back to Msconfig, click on Normal Startup inside the General tab, choose the Startup tab, and activate your autostart programs one by one until the problem occurs again, at which point of time you’ve located the source of the trouble. Software Explorer, which is part of Windows Defender, is designed to manage startup programs and it’s built right into Vista. Microsoft offers a free AutoRuns utility, which also runs in XP; this is much easier to use and less clumsy than Software Explorer. Strategies and techniques for troubling times: Always try System Restore once. If you don’t know what is causing your problem, and it just appeared recently, System Restore might be of use in restoring your PC’s function.

Click on the Start button, then All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore, in that sequence. From the options provided, select “Restore my computer to an earlier time” then click “Next” and simply follow the prompts that you will be given. See Woody Leonhard’s expert tips for even more information on System Restore in the February 16, 2006 paid version. A different profile may work. Log off of your account and log on again under an alternate one. If you can’t do that because you don’t have another account, then make a new one. A secondary account can be useful if you have a problem with your main account. Create a new user account by first opening Windows’ User Accounts Control Panel applet.

Then click on Create a new account and follow the steps that are displayed. In Microsoft Vista, you will have to click the add or remove user accounts, or manage another account, before you start to create a new account, hence if the problem doesn’t present itself in the other accounts, there is an error in your profile, in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER section of the Registry. You can use the second profile as your main user account, but you will still be required to reinstall some software and replace the custom settings from your original profile. Despite that fact, it is a better alternative to reinstalling Windows. Be sure to select the “Last Known Good” setting. After booting your computer, try pressing F8 before Windows starts if you cannot log into Windows.

Select “Last Known Good Configuration” option using arrow keys on the “Windows Advanced Options” screen. Selecting this will undo the latest changes made to your computer’s configuration. If using this option lets you restart Windows properly, you may have fixed the problem. It is not that Last Known Good Configuration can resolve every issue, but like many of these troubleshooting strategies, it’s worth attempting. Try Safe Mode resolution. If in any case Last Known Good Configuration fails to restart Windows normally, press the function key F8 on startup again to go back to the Windows Advanced Options Menu, but this time you need to choose Safe Mode (or Safe Mode with Networking if you need to access the Internet or a network resource).

Safe Mode can’t fix anything, but it will attempt to open Windows with some very basic drivers. The problem in your computer is likely to be a device driver if you can start Windows in Safe Mode. Once you know what the problem is, you can also use Safe Mode to fix it. There’s more about this in the next tip. Activate boot logging feature. If you think the problem might involve a specific driver or is related to your hardware, look through your Windows boot logs for detailed information. Pressing F8 during startup will open the Windows Advanced Options Menu, which is where you will find the option of enabling boot logging. In order to start Windows with boot logging activated, arrow down to select Enable Boot Logging and press the Enter key.

Pressing Win+R and then typing c:\windows\ntbklog.text and hitting enter will open up the log file. The boot log will add new information at the bottom of the file, so you will have to scroll down to see if it has added any helpful information. Keep an eye out for entries that might show a problem with loading a driver. When you log into Windows using the Safe Mode, it will show you a log of all drivers Safe Mode doesn’t use; thus this boot log is not really going to be of any use in determining which drivers may be causing the problem. Part Two: Divide and Conquer. Msconfig is a great tool to help isolate the problem if you think it is a driver or other system file. But first, a warning: Using Msconfig utility to temporarily deactivate Windows services will erase restore points made by System Restore. This method should only be used if you are absolutely sure that you won’t need any of the restore points that currently exist and the problem was not corrected by using System Restore. On the keyboard press Win+R, type the command msconfig, and hit the Enter key. Then find the tab that says “General”, choose “Diagnostic startup” and then click “OK”. Follow each of the steps in order to successfully restart your computer. If the problem goes away, you can add other system files back in with the Selective Startup option on the General tab to narrow down the possibilities and check whether the problem lies in System.ini, wini.ini, services, and so on.

When you have gotten your search nailed down to a particular area, get more refined by turning on specific items using the check boxes under the other Msconfig tabs. Get additional details from Windows. In some cases your system will automatically reboot when a crash occurs. You will be unable to check for possible reasons why you are auto rebooting because of this Windows feature. To stop auto restarts after your computer crashes, reboot and press F8 right before Windows load to bring you to the Windows Advanced Options Menu. By using the arrow keys, you will then be able to select Disable automatic restart on system failure. Choosing Properties, Advanced from the menu you get in XP when you right-click on My Computer will allow you to either turn the feature back on or off, depending on its current setting, without restarting your computer. Find the tab that says “Startup and Recovery” and then click “Settings”.

Under Automatic Restart, there is a checkbox that you can use to enable or disable the feature. In Windows Vista, press Start, type the command SystemPropertiesAdvanced, and hit Enter. Click on the Continue button when prompted to by User Account Control. After clicking the Advanced tab, choose Settings in Startup and Recovery. You can manage the Automatic Restart option by checking or unchecking the box below it. The next time you have an unexpected reboot, an error message should display on your screen with possibly the name of the file that may have caused this error. It might be helpful to do a Web search for the specific file name to find out more details. The possible components of the video driver you are using that might have caused your system to fail will be displayed by Windows. If the answer is yes, inquiring about recent driver modifications on the Website of your video card maker could be the answer.

Check your system files. Windows has a tool that allows you to check the integrity of the files it requires to function properly which you can use to examine, and replace files if required. System File Checker will examine your files and offer to replace with the original if any problem with an original file is found. Open a Command Prompt window with Administrator rights, type sfc /scannow, and hit the Enter key on the keyboard. You might need to insert your Windows installation CD for retrieval of the original file. There are two published articles available from Microsoft regarding the proper use of this tool: one covers its use in Windows XP and Server 2003, the other is a guide to using it in Vista. Consult a troubleshooter. It’ll be difficult if you’re a man – it’s like asking for directions. In certain cases, the troubleshooting guides in Windows Help can be helpful, although they can often miss the mark.

The guides can be accessed by choosing Start, then Help and Support. Look for some form of the word “troubleshoot”. Perform a distinct search for each of these terms since there is a high likelihood of getting differing results depending on the search term. Be tenacious, but have a get away plan. A long time acquaintance and exceptional troubleshooter told me, “When nothing has worked, fiddle with it.” Unrelenting pursuit has served me well in determining several computer issues. Try every solution you can think of, one right after the other, but keep in mind to go slowly and methodically so you can undo every attempted “fix” if it doesn’t work to solve the issue. For instance, when working with the Registry, take due care to use the File, Export command to backup the Registry branch you’re about to tweak. Obviously, anything that is subsequently added to the Registry such as keys or branches will not be included in your backup.

has served me well in determining several computer issues. Try every solution you can think of, one right after the other, but keep in mind to go slowly and methodically so you can undo every attempted “fix” if it doesn’t work to solve the issue. For instance, when working with the Registry, take due care to use the File, Export command to backup the Registry branch you’re about to tweak. Obviously, anything that is subsequently added to the Registry such as keys or branches will not be included in your backup.

Another excellent tool that’s freely available to Windows Vista administrators (or anyone else, for that matter) is the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA). This tool scans a system and quickly identifies security holes such as missing software patches or accounts with a blank or weak password.

Better yet, it recommends corrective action. The only bad news of sorts is that it’s not built into Windows Vista. You have to download this one from the Microsoft web site. The newest version of this tool at the time of this writing was released in May of 2008, Version 2.1. This updated version provides additional features which are detailed at the Microsoft website.

However, legacy Microsoft products are not supported by MBSA 2.1. Because of this, Microsoft has teamed-up with Shavlik Technologies to offer a free companion tool for MBSA 2.1. This will allow users of MBSA 2.01 to still receive security updates.

For the MBSA 2.01, the install steps are straightforward; just follow the steps in the wizard. During installation, the MBSA places a shortcut on the desktop by default. To launch the tool and perform a scan, follow these steps:

Double-click the desktop icon, and then, from the MBSA home page, choose Scan a Computer. Note here that admins can also use the MBSA to scan multiple computers in a network from a central location. In the Computer to Scan page, you should see the local machine listed if you’ve chosen the “Scan a computer” option. (The other selection produces a page from which you can select a range of machines.) Furthermore, the options in this screen let you specify exactly what components get checked during the scan. Once you verify the machine to scan, click the “Start scan” link. You’ll now see a Scanning page with a progress bar that can take several minutes to complete. When the scan finishes, you’ll see a report screen. As you can see, this provides extremely valuable information to administrators who are interested in doing everything they can to stop problems before they start. For example, the administrator of this machine has been very diligent about installing necessary software updates, it seems, and has gotten passing grades in most areas of computer security. But the MBSA scan generates a failing grade…how is this possible? The MBSA makes it easy to investigate the exact nature of the failing grade by clicking the “Result details” link, revealing the dialog box. In this case it reveales a very significant (yet usually hidden) threat: local user account passwords are weak, thus generating the failing grade.

If you’d like to get my book “Windows Vista Administration: The Definitive Guide” by Brian Culp, (or any of my other books and tutorials), you can pick it up at my website, http://www.TheAnswerHub.com or at most major book chains. In addition, I’m always happy to provide additional assistance for free (within reason, mind you…don’t go thinking this is some sort of a free ride). Visit me at my website and submit your questions to me. I’ll get back to you with an answer as soon as possible. Up Next: in the conclusion of this 5-part series, we’ll be discussing the removal of malicious software using the Malicious Software Removal Tool within Windows Vista.