There are lots of registry cleaning software programs currently available online, and many of them are free so it can be tempting just to go ahead and download one, so that you can carry out some basic maintenance of your registry lists and sort out any common errors such as invalid DLL or Active X keys.  However fraudsters and hackers can take advantage of these sorts of freeware programs to target your pc, imbedding malware such as trojans, spyware and backdoors into the software so that you download these into your system as well as (or even instead of) the registry cleaning software you were promised.  Also fraudsters can set up very professional looking websites that offer you registry cleaning software for a small charge, but when you download the software it either doesn’t work, or is a cheap rip off of other scans and is ineffective at scanning and cleaning your registry.

You may also find as your browse online you get pop ups that say things like ‘Your Registry Is Corrupted! You will Need to Scan Now by Going to www.registrysaver.com’ or something like that, which basically scares people into clicking on the website in the pop up link and downloading the software it contains, even though there may in actual fact be nothing much wrong with their registries.  It is important that you avoid clicking on any adverts or links in pop ups or banner ads, as although some of them are genuine many are actually used by fraudsters to trick you into visiting their websites, which can contain malware and other scams.

If you do need to carry out a scan of your registry then make sure you research registry cleaning programs thoroughly by visiting trusted review websites, and also reading what other customers have to say about the product, for both freeware and paid for downloads.