You may be a windows 98 user and have come across the unwanted blue screen. There are chances that you may have come across the blue screen not one but several times. The term blue screen of death is quite synonymous with Windows 98 as this was considered as the most harmful programming error in the Windows 98. The blue screen of death appearing on the Windows 98 computer indicates that the registry files are erroneous.

What is Registry?

The registry system is one of the major components of the windows. When the files contained in the registry get corrupted or missing, it makes the Windows 98 to hang. The windows introduced after Windows 98 are designed to handle this situation by not going into the blue screen of death. But running windows 98 in the computer is not of that much help, or is it?

Windows Registry Cleaner

A simple trick could be performed to keep the registry files error free. A registry cleaner could be downloaded from the internet which solves all the problems in the registry files and thus helps in reducing the frequency of appearance of the blue screen. Several types of registry cleaners can be found over the net. Comparison could be done amongst them, but most of them perform their work.

The registry could be repaired manually, but being a major database of settings and instructions, deleting any type of file that should not have been deleted from the registry could affect the computer in a major way causing all the data to be erased from the computer.

Probably the best solution is to download a registry utilities cleaner. These programs are quite easy to find, you just need to do a quick Google search and you'll find that lots of options come up.

How to use a registry cleaner in Windows 98?

It is very simple to use the windows registry cleaner. Just the program needs to be downloaded and then run. Almost all of the registry cleaners present the number of errors found and an option to solve them. One must always create backup of registry before fixing the errors through the program so that in case some of the registry files go missing, they could be put back in place.

What if You Still Get Blue Screens

There may be instances when one still gets a blue screen appearing on the computer even after repairing the registry files, which indicates some other problem. To sort out this, you need to think as what caused the blue screen to appear at first place. Installation of new hardware or software may also cause the blue screen to appear. If this is the reason, then that particular device driver must be uninstalled and not used and some other driver may be installed.

If you haven't done anything different then you probably have a hardware problem. Your memory could either be bad, or you may need to add memory. Your hard drive may be failing. There are several hard drive scanning programs you can find on the internet that can help you determine, if its your hard drive that is failing.

The appearance of the blue screen is generally caused by corrupt registry files in the Windows 98. But this problem is normally solved after the running of the registry repair cleaner.

Every computer owner has seen the error messages that appear on the computer. You are probably familiar with those illegal error messages where your heart begins to sink and you feel a nervous breakdown. But who has the right to call these error messages "illegal"? Does this mean that the end of someone is near? Will the computer be dead because it was turned on by you? Some of the persons get so scared off when they see these error messages that all they do is turning off the computer and call a repair technician, which is the best solution according to them. Over 20,000 computer error messages are known to date and it is not possible to find out what they literally mean.

After all what do error messages like the following mean: "Cannot delete tmp164_5.tmp: There is not enough free disk space." This error message doesn't even make sense. If the machine is telling you that you need to delete files, and when you want to do that, it won't let you. Hmmm! Interesting situation!

There is a message "An illegal operation has been performed by the program which will now shut down. Contact the program provider, if it continues". I don't even remember the exact number of time I have encountered this message. This one message tests the nerves of the user. You may be wondering if the people call the program provider in such a case. The answer is a simple "NO". The program vendors are not helpful in these cases. Letting the vendor know about the error message is just the same as letting Santa know about your wish list.

What can be done?

Most of these problematic messages could be dealt with by rebooting the computer or by turning it off and then turning it on. So, unless you are software engineer or have a good knowledge of computer, then you don't need to bother about these messages.

These error messages are nothing to worry about, but still there are some of the error messages that you should beware of and get help if you see them.

Windows perfection error - this message is displayed on the screen when there is a problem with VxD which means virtual device driver problem. For this, reboot the computer, make it enter the safe mode, then uninstall the driver that caused the problem and install it again. Errors occurring in the winnows registry cause this problem. So it is always better if you download a good windows registry utility software which fixes all the errors in the registry.

KERNAL32.DLL - The KERNAL32 receives a lot of processing requests and get entangled in it. It has to deal with a number of programs and their processing. Whenever there is a problem with KERNAL32, it means that either the files have corrupted, microprocessor problem, software gone wrong, corrupt drivers, virus in the computer, or reduced space in hard disc. It could mean a lot of things if you get a KERNAL32 error message. Even some problem with hardware also causes this message to appear. If there is not proper power supply, or overheated microprocessor, then these things are also responsible for KERNAL32 message. In such a case, you must use a registry utility cleaner and see if it solves the problem.

Blue Screen Errors - These are major computer errors and usually the computer doesn't bother sending you a cute error message here. You just get this big blue screen which is telling you to take immediate action. In some cases the blue screen will say "Wait for program or press ctl Alt Delete to reboot. In most cases you are just better off rebooting, because most of the time you cant get your program back. Once you reboot your computer should be fine. Sometimes the blue screen only informs you that you have unplugged some device and need to plug it back in. If Windows doesn't come back, then you need to reboot. The only time you ever need to worry about the blue screen is when it keeps recurring and won't go away, and then you probably have a hardware problem and should call a repair service provider.

In the End

Rebooting the computer only helps in most of the cases. There are always exceptions and there are cases when there have been problems in registry files and a registry utility cleaner solves the problem. It is important for you to get used to the meaning of error messages and summon a service technician to see what the problem actually is.

There may be cases when the Windows XP installed computer becomes slow in its working and the windows take time to open up. In many of these cases, it could be a software problem. Many of the computer owners know that adding memory space in the computer adds to the speed of the computer. This is the case in most of the problems but many a times, it is just a bad path or command name in the registry files.

It is a simple matter of having missing or corrupt registry files which can cause the XP computer to become slow.

First off, the Windows XP registry is basically a database of settings and instructions for everything in your computer: hardware, software, operating system, and even the preferences of the user of the computer. If you have multiple users on a PC, and they each login differently, then these types of preferences, or settings, are stored in the registry.

The data such as settings and instructions according to which the user makes a preference is often stored in the registry of the computer in the particular case when there are more than one users working on a same computer through different login links. All of the changed settings of computer and modifications in preferences are stored and updated in these registry files only.

The concerning questing which one may come up with is that what makes the registry messed up? The thing is that whenever a new program is installed in the computer by the user, the registry files are made to work simultaneously with the new program installed by the user in the computer. Normally, the newly installed program runs correctly and smoothly. But one does not get to know about it as it is of no concern to the work of the user.

Sometimes the registry file needed to run a specific program is missing which makes the computer unable to work. The computer is unable to do any type of work as it could not take any action of its own or find answers and hangs as a result. These things happen normally to every computer owner which makes the Windows XP computer to run slow.

If you have ever had a problem like this, where the computer is just flat out slow, you need to fix your registry files. And, I guarantee you will have errors in the registry files. I run my registry repair software weekly, and find and fix errors. I ran it right before this article, and found 36 errors. When I do optimization for other people's computers, it is not uncommon to find over 600 errors. Fixing these errors will dramatically increase the speed of your computer, and minimize the down time of your computer. And it is easier and cheaper than buying a bunch of memory you may not need.

A computer with a very slow startup and working could be maintained with a sample tip. It is needed to run the registry repair software to check for errors in the registry files of the windows. After this, the XP windows computer would have an enhanced speed.