# clogged registry question



## Southpaw (Jan 2, 2003)

My computer has slowed down a lot of the past few months. I think it may be a clogged registry so I used a registry-cleaning program. It identified thousands of duplicate files. I think it was thousands of them actually. They are all listed out. How can I know if its safe to delete them? Some look identical and some slightly non-identical. What is the most efficient way to do this? To manually delete would take too long. Thanks.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

I would not be so quick to conclude that your computer has slowed due to registry housekeeping, and I've had serious problems using registry cleaners. I would investigate resource usage and leave registry cleaning as a last resort.

Start by looking at your CPU & memory usage by doing a ctrl-alt-del to bring up the task manager, then select the performance tab.


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## millipede (May 28, 2006)

I agree. I would stay away from the registry as much as possible. For a slow computer I'd look into task monitor as mentioned, buy hitting control alt delete. You'll get a list of all the programs running as well as the memory they are using up (provided this is win 2k or newer). I'd also look into cleaning up junk files and checking for spyware and viruses.


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## Rocky Fields (Jan 24, 2007)

Hey.

Defrag your harddrive. 

Registry cleaning should be done on a regular basis, so go ahead. The registry cleaner programs are designed to do just that, you have to trust them. A computer might have 10,000 or more entries. It would take forever to do it manually.

RF


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## arabian knight (Dec 19, 2005)

I Like and use Registry Mechanic. The Pd version that is.
And I use it quite often as it repairs those that get messed up.


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## Gary in ohio (May 11, 2002)

I doubt its the registry issue that causing the slowdown but running the cleaners is fine.
let it do what its suppose to do. The program should backup your registry before doing any changes so you can always roll back.


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