Computer running slow or acting funny?  The problem may lie in your registry.  I would highly recommend using a registry cleaner on your system.  What does a registry cleaner do?  Read on below.

Purpose

Registry Cleaners are software utilities that attempt to remove configuration data from the Windows Registry that is no longer in use or that is unwanted on the system. Such data may include information left by software that has not been uninstalled completely from the computer, information that is no longer of use, or settings required for the operation of malware. A registry cleaner scans the registry, and attempts to pick out the unnecessary values in order to delete or repair them.

Advantages

Registry cleaners, or registry cleanup software, may improve the performance of computers by ridding the registry of redundant information.

Due to the sheer size and complexity of the registry database, manually cleaning up debris and invalid entries would be impractical, so registry cleaners are essentially tools that automate the process of looking for invalid entries, missing file references or broken links within the registry and resolving them.

The correction of an invalid registry key can provide some benefits. Noted Windows architecture expert Mark Russinovich has concluded that registry cleaners will continue to have a role until most applications have moved to the .NET Framework platform that does not rely on the registry for application settings.

Some registry cleaners offer backup and restore functions that allow the user to revert changes made by the registry cleaner in case they are undesired. A registry cleaner may be useful for someone that adds or removes programs from their computer very often; however, a virtual machine is a faster and more reliable means of reverting an operating system to a previous good known state in a testing scenario.