Your Windows registry is, in effect, a large central database that records and stores all information and settings for your system, including, preferences, hardware and software. As a result, whenever anyone makes a change to any of the settings or installs any new software, all of these actions are recorded in the Windows registry. Operating within the registry itself, you can also control most of your computer's operating system, and you can also look at fixing many of Windows operating issues.
With regard to installations (and uninstallations), whenever you add or delete a program, your registry will update the new actions and information, meaning that, coupled with the increasing installation and de-installation of programs,over a period of time, your registry expands and grows, thereby slowing your computer down. your computer's performance will also be impaired, and this frequently leads to crashes and corrupted data.
As a result of these things, it is a good idea to improve the performance of your PC by ensuring that your registry remains streamlined. This will also help you to prevent the common problems associated with most system crashes and error messages. To do this, you can periodically scan your Windows registry to check for errors, obsolete entries and malware.
Perhaps the best way to do so is to obtain registry cleaning software which will run in the background of your operating system and scan the registry for broken links and obsolete entries. Once it finds them, it can correct the problems without causing any disturbance to anything you may currently be doing on your PC.
Users may also choose to clean the Windows registry manually. This is, however, a fairly complex process and if you are not absolutely certain what you are doing and what you are looking for, you may end up causing more problems than you end up fixing-perhaps even damaging the registry, leaving your computer unable to boot. As a result, it is recommended to either consult an expert, or use a decent registry cleaning program.
Windows Registry - The LowdownThere is a lot of money in the spyware industry, which is why antivirus vendors have to compete with the latest, state of the art spyware. When you install spyware, it is like giving you bank pass and pin number to a complete stranger. Spyware also causes indirect damages, such as increased network costs.
Spyware is hard to control, because the technology to detect spyware is always one step behind. It take about a hour to invent new spyware or to rewrite the source to make it undetectable. Most viruses do this on a automated basis, so they are unique at each infected computer. It can take days or even weeks for antivirus vendors to detect these algorithms, while a spyware author can easily adapt to a new one in matter of hours.
The newest antivirus software have techniques to let spyware run in a secured environment and monitor for changes. However, spyware authors strike back with code that breaks out of this environment. It is also very easy to detect if it runs in such environment, since windows api calls and addresses are located differently then when running on the real system.
With the ongoing rate of spyware distribution, we need much more then heuristic protection and signature based detection. The only valid solution is to assign a portion of the registry and disk to one program. This way, software cannot access information it may not read. This is very unpractical for normal computer users. Like always in security there is always a tradeoff between usability and security!
Why Spyware is Hard to Control