After many things being said all over the web about them, many might still wonder how do registry cleaners really do their work.
To have a greater understanding on how a registry cleaner works, it would be of some help to tackle an overview of the basic anatomy of a Windows registry. For starters, a Windows registry is a vital component of the operating system which comes in the form of a database. What are stored in this database are the configuration settings and information for the computer hardware as well as the software that are installed on it. When you install a new software, i.e., MS Office, Norton Anti-Virus, Nero, Adobe Acrobat, Photoshop, your best online photo management software and etc., the installation software that is packaged with these applications will place some pieces of code into the registry to guide the Windows operating system as to the location of the associated files on the hard drive, how the applications would be integrated into the desktop, how they are configured to run, what the user settings are, or how the applications would interface with the computer’s hardware and peripheral devices.
Keys and Values
The Windows registry is composed of two fundamental elements which are:
1) Key
2) Value
To understand better what these two are, we may have to give due reference to the structure of files and folders in the Windows operating system.
The structure of the Key is much like as in a file folder. It looks like the folder you see when you open the file manager utility in Windows. As such, the Key may contain files or other sub-keys in it. The Value is the one that actually contains data or information to be used by the operating system. As such, the Value contained within a Key is much like in structure with a file which is contained in a folder. Sounds too technical? Just remember this: Folders = Keys and Files = Values. It is that simple really.
Now what registry cleaners then do is just so simple. They scan the Keys and Values for any invalid, redundant, or corrupted data which may impair the efficient operation of your computer and then remove those. One may ask, why would there be an invalid or corrupted data in the registry when I do not even know how to access it? You may not, but the installers and uninstallers of the software such as a typical touch tablet software which you may have installed in your 
system do. Not only that, viruses, malwares, spywares, Trojans, worms, and other malicious software designed to corrupt the registry may find their way past the anti-viruses and into the registry itself. In addition, there are many software uninstallers which do not completely delete the Keys and Values associated with the software application which you might have uninstalled. These are just the most common factors which lead to a fragmented, corrupted and cluttered registry and thus the need to have them cleaned manually or, as preferred by many, to clean them using free or paid registry cleaners.
What we have just tackled is an overview of the Windows registry and how the registry cleaners do their thing. Hopefully, you just had a basic understanding of the concepts behind their primary function.
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