Is your Windows 10 PC running slow? Or are you seeing random error messages and frequent PC crashes, and Blue screen? If there is a high chance that your computer is infected with spyware, malware, or virus. As a result, you need to check the same with Windows 10 Registry and see if everything is fine or not. And in this article, I will tell you how to check if the REG file safe or not.
As you probably already know that, the Windows registry is one of the most important built-in tools in your system. It is a collection of databases that are configured on Windows. Hence you must keep it safe to use your PC without any interruptions.
However, to help you understand everything in a simpler manner. Let me just explain everything in detail below:
What Is a REG File?
REG File refers to Windows Registry, and it is a database of Windows and other third-party application’s settings and other data.
Also, it is one of the most important built-in tools of a Windows System. As some advanced level of settings can only be changed in the Windows Registry. But only if you are using the Professional, Enterprise, and Education editions of Windows 10 can you make the changes.
You can edit Windows Registry for a wide range of reasons. For instance, you can edit registry files to speed your computer and so on. Even you can create REG files by yourself by writing codes in Notepad. You can also download or export Registry files from other computers and export them to your system.
Also, As Windows Registry holds the Windows settings and other data, making slight changes could mess up your system.
And this is what the different kinds of viruses do. They do make changes to the REG file. As a result, you start facing issues with your computers such as PC slowdown, frequent PC crashes, blue death of screen, and others.
How to Check if a REG File is safe?
As Windows Registry is one of the most important elements on your computer, it is recommended that you take a backup of your registry keys or create a system restore point beforehand.
But here are the steps you can follow to check the Windows Registry for Malware:
- Press the Win + R key to open the RUN dialog.
- Then press regedit and press enter to launch Registry Editor. Now go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
- Finally, scroll down and find the folders that start with RUN. Then click on each folder to open the program list.
Over here, you will get to see different registry keys, but don’t go ahead and delete them yet. Instead, there are a few ways you can consider judging if the registry is genuine or not.
First, the name of the malware might be misspelled, or it will not be a familiar program. Along with that, you can also do a Google search to know about the registry key before you remove it from your PC.
Also, you may have these below malware-infected registry keys on your Windows 10 system:
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HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices
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HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServicesOnce
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HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders
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HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
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HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\User Shell Folders
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HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Shell Folders
So that was a quick way to know if a REG file is safe or not. Now go ahead and try checking your registry files and see if you can find anything suspicious. Also, you can try downloading registry files from a genuine website and importing them to your PC.
