Somehow, between the time that you turned your computer off for the day, and
the time that you turned it on the next day, it died. How in the heck could
that happen? It was working fine, your turned it off, you turned it on, and now
it won't boot. Gremlins? Not likely. The chances are you have a corrupted
Windows Registry file. How did it corrupt itself while it was turned off? It
didn't. It got corrupted sometime while you were using it during the day but it
didn't need to access the boot routines because it was already running. The
next time you tried to wake it up, it just stayed in bed.
"How does the Registry get corrupted?" you ask?
The most common corruption culprits are when you install new software or
hardware and something goes wrong during the installation, and when you
uninstall software or hardware and something goes wrong during the uninstall
process. Of course, power surges, dirty power, and the simple fact that Windows
accesses the Registry for just about everything it does also contributes to the
Registry's demise. The Registry is, after all, a database and databases
eventually get corrupted.
Installing software creates a risk when incorrect entries are placed into the
Registry by the software installation routines. Most Windows' software rely
upon special files called .INF files for detailed instructions on what
directories to create, where to install the various files, and what entries
should be placed into the Registry. If there is an error in the .INF file then
you could end up with a dead PC.
Uninstalling software causes certain entries in the registry, called "keys",
to get deleted. Well, they are not actually deleted, they're just marked as
deleted so the registry will no longer "see" them. What eventually happens is
one of the deleted keys starts conflicting with an active key and poof! The
registry gets corrupted.
Although a corrupted registry is the leading cause of Windows failure, it's not
the only one. Bugs (defects) in installed software can trash any of the system
files that Windows needs to operate. Incompatible software and hardware drivers
can also fry Windows with no notice.
Another big PC killer are incorrect file associations that get set between
software programs and the file types that they are meant to access.
There is a seemingly unending list of other small glitches and gotcha's that
can take your PC to an early grave.
Most of the time we don't know about these problems until it is too late. There
are some software "health checking" programs that are designed to act as sort
of an early warning system. These programs identify file corruption and other
issues before they get out of hand. The best ones not only find the problems
but they tell you how to fix them as well. The best of the best not find the
problems but they actually fix them automatically. That's exactly what the
average non-technical computer user needs.
I don't want to give you a feeling of dread by making you think that it's just
a matter of time until your PC get walloped by one of these problems that
cause it to crash and burn. No, I don't WANT to give you that feeling of dread,
but I must because it's true. Your PC is busily going about the task of killing
itself every time that you use it. My advice? Get one of those "health
checkers", preferably one that will fix the problems automatically, and get
busy saving your PC's life before it's too late! Download
