The Windows registry is a place where all the settings for both the operating system itself and most of the installed programs and applications are stored, and this information is often retained even after the application is removed. The number of such unnecessary folders, which are called "branches" in the registry, grows over time, and it becomes necessary to delete them.
Necessary
- A computer running a Windows operating system on which your account has administrator rights;
- initial registry skills
Instructions
Step 1
Make sure that your account has administrator rights in the operating system, if necessary, change the account to the one that has such rights. If you don't, you won't be able to make changes to the Windows registry.
Step 2
Press the Win + R keyboard shortcut. In the command line that appeared after that, enter the command regedit and press "Enter".
Step 3
In the opened window of the regedit utility, operations with the registry are performed. To find the application branch that you want to delete, press Ctrl + F and enter the branch name in the search bar. If it matches any application, the branch name will necessarily contain either the name of the application or the name of its developer. Hit Enter.
Step 4
Place the cursor on the found registry key. Press the right mouse button and select "Delete" from the list that appears. The system will issue a warning about the possible consequences of the operation, confirm your decision.
Step 5
If you are not sure about the correctness of your actions, you can save a backup copy of it as a registry file before deleting the registry key. To do this, also position the cursor on the line of the desired branch and press the right mouse button, but instead of deleting, select the "Export" option and specify the path for the saved file. After that, to restore the deleted branch, it is enough to run the backup file, and the data from it will be automatically added to the registry.
