Does unused entries in the registry really mess up the computer?

[friendlyone20]

Is this just an old wives' tale to make people think something is wrong with their computers if they have old entries just chilling in their registry? I'm not asking because I'm planning on doing anything to my computer's registry, I'm smart enough to know not to go messing with that. Just asked out of curiosity.

Also, I'm sorry if this is in the wrong spot, I don't see a 'registry' sub board.

 

[harrisjb78]

Performance wise - No it doesn't effect, and if it does it is minimal at most.
Problem wise - Yeah it can and is usually a worthwhile troubleshooting step in some cases.

And yes usually messing with that stuff causes more problems.

 

[USAFRet]

Is this just an old wives' tale to make people think something is wrong with their computers if they have old entries just chilling in their registry? I'm not asking because I'm planning on doing anything to my computer's registry, I'm smart enough to know not to go messing with that. Just asked out of curiosity.

Also, I'm sorry if this is in the wrong spot, I don't see a 'registry' sub board.

No.
There are literally hundreds of thousands of entries in the Reg.
Unused things are just that...unused.

Now...in theory...a larger Registry means that when the Registry is read it takes 'longer'.
However...if you ever look at a realtime scrolling Registry monitor...you'll see that the registry is being written to and read from constantly. Thousands of times per minute.

 

[bjornl]

Paging through 100 pages takes longer than paging though 80. So it is logical that registry bloat has some trivial impact to system performance. But tools which mess with your registry (such as CCLeaner) are tools for fools. I've worked in IT for several decades, and I have seen so many PCs with compromised usability or in some cases not bootable from CCLeaner (and similar tools).

A recent example for compromised usability was a PC which lost of ability to use certain types of devices on the USB bus. In this case he could use every USB device except usb-storage. Uninstalling and re-installing USB drivers did not resolve the issue. Another symptom was Windows repair instal would not run. Format and re-install and everything worked.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

"I'm sorry if this is in the wrong spot, I don't see a 'registry' sub board"


There's no dedicated registry forum since we flat out discourage any messing about with that unless you're instructed to edit it by one of our experts to solve a specific problem.

Since the registry is built in to Windows, it's seems logical to me that any registry questions be posted on the relevant Windows forum.