What are registry keys, and how do I get rid of them ?

Question

When I use my anti virus, it takes longer every time to go through all these registry keys,because there are more every day. Can I take them out and be rid of them? I am old and just learning to use the computer a bit at a time

Answer 1

registry keys are the brain and control of your computer, i strongly advise you should not mess with them unless you know what you are doing

Answer 2

You get rid of registry keys by using an operating system that has the good sense to avoid using them. The registry is just another reason Windows is not only insecure, but easily corrupted.

Get a Macintosh and you won't have to worry about a registry key or anti virus software. You'll also find that the Mac isn't difficult to learn as Windows.

Answer 3

Registry keys are key to the computer running. There can be viruses in these, but your software would have picked them up. Dont mess with them and save yourself a lot of trouble.

Answer 4

Uh, no offense, but if you don't know what registry keys are then you have absolutely no business editing your registry and deleting anything.

You'd end up scrambling your Windows build, and at that point, you are worse than any virus you're trying to prevent.

Why are you doing this manual scan? I never do a complete scan unless I suspect a computer is infected.

Answer 5

Uh no. Not unless your Anti virus software tells you to. The registry keys are what tells your computer what it has inside it.

The keys shouldn't be causing that much of a lag. Try running a cleaning program to straighten up your hard drive.[ see link in source]

Answer 6

Registry Keys are vital to your computer running correctly. You can access your registry by clicking then and typing "regedit".

You shouldn't mess with your registry keys unless you know exactly what the hell you are doing. I would deal with the wait: Have a cold beer while scan is running.

Note: There are FREE registry cleaning utilities that you may want to investigate. Go to download.com and search for free registry cleaners.

Answer 7

If you don't know what it is, I advise you it leave it alone.
Its very dangerous in inexperienced hands.

Its safer to Download the free trial of TuneUp utilities 2007 and run the registry scanner. It will delete all unnecessary registry keys.

http://www.tune-up.com/products/tuneup-utilities/

EDIT: If he wanted a different operating system, he would have it.