The average Windows user may never need to open the Windows registry, but a variety of applications and Windows services do. If your registry items have gone bad, you’ll experience a variety of problems, including higher CPU usage, random system crashes, longer boot and shutdown times, and sub-par overall performance. It goes without saying that keeping your registry in working order is of the utmost importance.

Here's everything you need to know about repairing registry items in Windows 11, creating registry backups, and a few system maintenance tips.

The Windows registry is a system-wide repository of files and settings that stores important information about Windows, user preferences, applications, hardware, and many other important components of your PC.

This data is stored in 'keys' and 'values' – the two basic components of the registry – and is accessed by Windows when needed.