Like blue screen and blank screen, computer freezing is an annoying problem to Windows XP, Vista users. I researched for a long time for the reason why computer kept freezing. Finally, when I found it, I was in big surprise!
It was Windows registry which caused computer freezing!
The Windows Registry is a database that stores settings and information for hardware, operating system software, and non-operating system software. That is, registry contains vital information of PC device drivers and all installed software.
When you run a program, registry provide the information of the program to Windows. Then Windows can find the location of the program and access the settings correctly. With the information, Windows can run the program smoothly and stably.
Registry is usually saved as DAT, SAV and other files, spreads over the system disk where you installed Windows. Registry key is the smallest unit which store the value of specific programs. It is very vulnerable.
If you install and uninstall programs from computer, registry keys can be easily damaged. And if computer is infected with virus, malware, spyware, they can also bring damages to registry keys or even delete some keys completely. These two issues result in up to 90% missing, invalid and corrupted registry keys.
When some keys are damaged, the programs and drivers will not be able to work properly. That is why you frequently have program not responding, screen freezing, blue screen and blank screen of death. To solve those problems, you need to clean up and optimize registry regularly.