At some point in time you may come across a Windows XP registry problem and any registry problem is serious and needs to be taken care of immediately.
The registry is like the warehouse for your operating system as it contains all the code and information that is needed for your system to run properly.
It does not take much to cause a problem as little changes can make big differences.
There are two different ways in which problems can occur with the registry.
The two factors are malware and anti spyware and the second is you going into the file and changing things or human interference.
Unless you have a lot of coding experience or are very experienced with computers, you should never open the registry file.
Most spyware and malware will upload to the registry and to get rid of it, you need to get rid of the code in the registry file.
A lot of spyware will actually keep reinstalling itself, so cleaning up of the registry is very important.
Besides using a registry cleaning program, you also need a good security program to stop the spyware from accessing the registry file in the first place.
If for some reason you do need open the registry, then you should back up the registry file first so that if you should change something and the registry file does not work, you can always restore the backup file so your computer will work again.
This backup can be done using the REGEDIT function in your computer.
You need a firewall in place to protect your computer from malware as the registry file is very vulnerable to attack without a firewall or security program.
Even with the proper software in place, you will want to scan your registry regularly to get rid of any spyware, inactive code and other changes to the file.