Optimizing the Windows Registry, which often is referred to as defragmenting it, is an option to reduce the size of the system file to speed up the boot process of the system.

Registry Life is a free software program for Windows that can not only optimize the Registry, but also clean it.

Cleaning the Registry involves removing invalid entries and other problems from the it, to avoid problems, and remove Registry keys that are not longer needed. This can again reduce the final size of an optimized Registry.

Registry life scans the Windows Registry on startup and displays a number of problems as a result of the scan. This first check is a fast check to see whether problems exist in the Registry. A click on Run Registry cleanup or Registry Cleanup in the sidebar opens the Automatic Registry Cleanup module to perform a thorough scan and cleanup of the Registry.

The program scans various groups in the Registry, including file type associations, shared libraries, MUI cache, registered applications or control parameter sets. A click on Fix creates a backup of the corrected Registry entries and removes or correct the Registry settings from the system.

Registry optimization defragments and compresses the Windows Registry. The program will analyze the Registry which can take a moment, and start the defragmentation and compression afterwards.

The program reduced the size of the Registry on our Windows 7 Professional 64-bit system from 75 Megabytes to 65 Megabytes, which has a visible impact on the system’s startup time. A restart of the system is required after the procedure.

Windows users can download Registry 4 Life from the developer’s website. The program is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows 2000 to Windows 7.

Expert mode allows a user to configure some of the scan rules before the scan is conducted. It provides access to four different configuration settings including a slider to change scan performance, words to ignore or search for and advanced options like removing all found errors automatically or ignoring entries that get recreated by the computer system.

PowerTools Lite will display its findings in four different categories: Registry Errors, Registry Junk, MRU and History Data and Temp Files. It is possible to take a closer look at every entry and deselect some or all of them in the process. The actual items that have been found will display the location of the item, the severity and description.

The program can create backups on the user’s request. It will also suggest to create a backup before starting the cleanup.

The Registry cleanup tool quickly scans the Windows Registry to find gaps, fragments and wasted space and displays a quick report after the Registry scan that outlines the gain from defragmenting the Registry.

A smaller Registry has several advantages including a faster system start and an overall increase in system performance. It is necessary to close all open software programs before starting the Registry scan.

RegDefrag provides access to automatic System Restore Point creation and Registry backups before starting the defragmentation. Both can be configured in the program’s options.

A html report can be created in the end which provides an in depths summary of the Registry cleanup process. The computer system has to be restarted before the changes take effect.