How To Defragment The Windows XP Registry – Faster XP 2012 – Ep. 14

Defragmentation is a technical word thrown around by techs and geeks. In a nutshell, defragmentation is the process of taking a file whose parts are physically separate, and relocating them back together.

When a file is “fragmented”, it means it is located on many different physical locations of the disk, thus disk access to those files takes more time. The registry, like regular files, is susceptible to fragmentation and and optimization strategy should include defragmentation of the registry.

With the right tools, registry defragmentation is extremely easy. Thankfully, our friends at Glarysoft developed a freeware application known as ‘Glary Utilities’. Glary Utilities includes a module specifically designed for defragmenting the Windows XP registry.

Registry defragmentation should allow for better Windows XP performance through faster disk access speeds. Although it is tough to gauge exactly how much performance is gained, it is best to adopt the theory of ‘best practices’ rather than doing nothing at all.

Abstract:

Defragmentation of the registry is an essential step for optimizing any Windows operating system. For systems running Windows XP for extended periods of time, the registry can become significantly fragmented and cause decreased performance through access and association times. Thankfully the freeware tool known as Glary Utilities makes the process of registry defragmentation simple.

About This Episode:

In this video, I cover how to remove and clean Windows XP junk files.

How To Defragment The Windows XP Registry:

1. Download and install the latest version of ‘Glary Utilities’ (you may want to avoid installing the Glary Toolbar).

2. Open ‘Glary Utilities’.

3. Select the ‘Modules’ tab.

4. Choose the ‘Optimize & Improve’ section.

5. Select the ‘Registry Defrag’ option.

6. Choose ‘Next’.

7. When prompted to proceed, follow the instructions and choose ‘Ok’.

8. The defragmentation ‘Analysis’ may take quite some time depending on the severity of the ‘Fragmentation’.

9. When ‘Analysis’ is complete, choose ‘Next’.

10. When prompted to ‘Restart’, select ‘Yes’.

11. Reboot will take ‘Extra Time’ for optimization.

Conclusion:

Users can decide to run a registry defrag three or maybe four times a year. Given the small size of the registry, fragmentation does not occur as significantly as it does on the standard Windows XP file system. This is still a great method for ensuring any Windows XP machine is optimized to it’s full capability.

Next Faster XP 2012 Episode:

Faster XP 2012 Episode 15: How To Speed Up Windows XP Internet Browsing Speed >

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