It is the reason your computer is running slow. As a computer technician I find that 90% of Windows related performance issues as well as system crashes are due to errors in the Windows Registry. The Windows Registry is the place where all your configuration settings are stored. The Windows Registry is huge because it stores every setting from the background of your desktop all the way to what programs load when your computer starts. The registry accounts for it all. Every time you install a new program it makes changes to your Windows registry. Even settings for your hardware are stored in the registry. The longer you have your computer the more errors seem to find their way into your registry, along with useless information and unnecessary configuration settings that tend to bog your system down. These things can wreak havoc on your system. Learning the ins and outs of the Windows registry will give you the power to fix almost any problem affecting your computer.