Some bad programming in an application (Office 2010 for example stores keys in the same place as Office 2003, as certain parts of the program haven't been updated fully. They remove or 'clean' a series of registry keys that may be there for a purpose. In conclusion, 3rd party tools can (and often do) do more damage than good.

If you've never spun a plate before, you just know its not going to work. Trying to help a plate that looks like its starting to fall, will either help it, or make it come crashing down. Windows can do a great job of keeping them spinning, and users should just watch from a safe distance. Think of the registry as a series of spinning plates on sticks. There are tools with Windows to fix minor registry issues, but for the most part, 3rd party tools give the most assistance. Life is never fair though, and no matter how simple a system is, there will always be a way for it to fail. Theoretically, it should tick over on its own, and never cause an issue. Just like a cars management engine doesn't require the user to dabble with it constantly, the same is with the registry.

Its so intwined, just one misconfigured key can make a system unbootable.įor the majority of users, thats all they need to know. Its not just application settings now, but core system configurations.

INI files were getting too complex, and didn't provide enough granularity.Īs the systems developed, so did the registry.

INI files - small text files containing options and configuration settings. Back in the days of Windows 3.1, the registry didn't really exist.

Reg organizer