What happens when you install a program on your computer? This is not a rhetorical question. The answer is important because 11-year-old Caitlin Devenish has written in from Shreveport to ask us, and added that while she has no problems installing programs on her system, uninstalling them is a different question altogether. “Whenever I try and uninstall certain programs that have been occupying space on my hard drive, I get these uninstall error messages. Can you help?”

Well, can you? You probably can, if you know that improper uninstalling of a program is most often attributable to a corrupt Windows Registry, but if you don’t know what a Windows Registry is in the first place, you are as lost as young Ms Devenish.

In very basic terms, then, Windows Registry is a vast internal database of Windows settings, which monitors the way your operating system works, and every time you install or uninstall a program, changes are made to the Registry. Virtually all Windows programs, including Windows itself, store a huge mass of information on the database. So when you make changes to the system, they may not always reflect correctly in the Registry, thereby slowing down your PC. As these changes accumulate, the Windows Registry becomes bloated and possibly corrupt.

See, the thing is, when you install software or a program, it copies files to different locations on your hard disk, such as a specific installation folder, or various system directories. It also registers itself and its components on the Windows Registry. So you can see why, if all you do is delete the installation folder, traces of the program will still remain on your Registry, thus clogging it and causing it to function improperly.

Hang on, you say, what about if I remove the program from Windows Add/Remove Programs from the Control Panel, would it still leave remnants on the Registry? The sad truth is yes, it will. This is either because the uninstall instructions that you should have received while installing the program were not downloaded in full, or because some files relating to the program are also being used by some other programs, which makes them inaccessible while uninstalling the original program. Also, the Control Panel will not show all installed software, so you will simply not uninstall it fully from ADD/Remove Programs.

So, the bottom line is that you need a slim, trim, and clean Registry for a properly functioning PC, one that will uninstall programs without throwing up uninstall error messages. So download a free Registry cleaner from the Internet and use it without delay. As the ultimate PC optimizer, you can’t do much better than a Registry cleaner. Just make sure you get it from a trusted source, and make a backup of the entire Registry before you commence cleaning.

And finally, remember that a Windows Registry cleaner will allow you to actually use your PC rather than spend time installing and uninstalling programs in an attempt to eliminate uninstalling errors.

We recommend RegCure (direct download link) as the premiere registry cleaner and Windows error repair tool.