The Windows Registry is a set of files that contains settings
for your Windows PC - such as what program to use to open HTML
files, when your antivirus program should run, or what desktop
background you use. You can read more about the Windows Registry at
Wikipedia.
Over time, the Registry can become cluttered with missing or
broken items as you install, upgrade, and uninstall software and
updates. CCleaner can help you clean out the Registry so you'll
have fewer errors. The Registry will run faster, too.
To clean your Registry:
- In CCleaner, click the Registry icon at left.
- Optionally, select the items under Registry
Integrity you wish to scan (they are all checked by
default). This is for advanced users - we recommend you leave all
the items checked.
- Click Scan for Issues. You'll see a progress
bar and a list of potential issues.
- Once the scan is finished, you can review the list of issues
(this is really for advanced users). Or, to save the list to a text
file, right-click anywhere inside the list, and then click
Save to text file...
- If you want CCleaner to skip any of the issues it's found,
right-click the issue, and then click Add to Exclude
List. You can review the current set of excluded
files, folders, and Registry entries in the Exclude section of
the Options pane.
- Click Fix selected issues... to fix the
Registry problems.
- You are prompted to backup the Registry first. We
strongly recommend you click Yes.
- Choose a location where to save the Registry backup. The file
name ends in .REG. Click Save.
- CCleaner displays the first Registry problem and a proposed
solution. For example:
- This dialog box shows an example of an issue found by CCleaner's Registry Cleaner.
- Do one of the following:
- To fix all issues at once, click Fix All Selected
Issues. We recommend this choice for most users. Click
OK. Once all issues have been fixed, click
Close.
- Review the issue and proposed solution. To fix this specific
issue, click Fix Issue. CCleaner will then go to
the next issue. To skip this issue and go to the next one, click
the >> button. You will have to repeat this
process for all of the issues CCleaner found.
- To stop making changes to the Registry, click
Close. Note: If you do this by mistake, just click
Fix Selected Issues... again.
Note: To scan one type of Registry entry in the
Registry Integrity list, right-click it, and then click
Scan [Registry Type].
