Recapture Your PC's 'New Car Smell'

Ever drive a new car off the lot, only to discover that the last dealership employee who drove it before you bought it had mud on his shoes? You're left with a shiny, new car that you really wanted . . . and a lot of mess on the floor mats. Few people realize it, but buying a new computer is a lot like that experience.

The folks who build PCs rarely "clean up" after themselves when it comes to taking care of the registry - a computer's virtual directory that stores settings and options for the entire operating system. Your brand new PC likely already has registry errors the moment you take it out of the box, thanks to manufacturers' practice of pre-installing software before they ship it to you.

Installing new software is one of the many ways in which "natural" errors can occur in a PC's registry. In theory, having the manufacturer pre-install needed software - plus a lot of ad-ons they hope you'll buy too - should make your life easier. But while you may not have to install your own software, you will need to clean your new PC's registry yourself, because manufacturers don't.

To prove the need to run registry-cleaning software on brand new PCs, the folks at Sammsoft, who produce the award-winning Advanced Registry Optimizer 5, purchased a new computer from a well-known big box electronics store. They ran ARO 5 on the supposedly perfect-right-out-of-the-box PC and found 173 registry errors. A new computer with registry errors may still be fast, but it's probably not as fast as it could be.

You change a PC's registry every time you change something in the control panel settings, install or remove programs, or create or remove shortcuts. Errors can naturally occur during these processes, and over time they can slow your computer's performance. A large number or errors can even end up crashing your computer.

The good news is it's easy to recapture your PC's equivalent of that coveted "new car smell." You won't need to wipe the hard drive and start over with a blank slate, reinstalling all the software yourself. Instead, just run registry cleaning software like ARO 5.

ARO 5 deep scans 12 broad categories where registry errors commonly occur, including those involved with the installation of new software. Backup and undo functions allow you to preserve a snapshot of your PC before each cleaning or even revert to the settings that were active before your last cleaning.

You can try ARO 5 for free. Just go to www.Sammsoft.com to download your free trial. When the download finishes, click "run" to install. The program will scan and diagnose your PC's registry, tell you how many errors it found and what type they are, and fix the first 20 errors for free. If you like how the software works, you can upgrade to the full unlimited commercial system for just $29.95 and finish repairing the rest of the errors.

Copyright © 2008, ARAnet, Inc.