In all honesty, many consumers feel that a registry cleaner software is a gimmick that was created by the software companies to rake in tons of money. (Kind of like Sweetest Day and Hallmark.) There's really no need for it, right? Wrong. According to a recent article in the Los Angeles Chronicle, cleaning one's registry is not a waste of time – it's a necessary step in your computer maintenance regimen.

Why are registry cleaners so important?
It appears, my friends, that the Windows Operating System is not foolproof, regardless of which version you're running on. Are we surprised? Probably not. What is surprising is that many of the PC errors that the average user runs into have something to do with corruption of the Windows Registry – something the average, everyday registry cleaner can take care of.

So can you really solve all of your computer problems with a registry cleaner? No. But you can save yourself some calls to the local nerd herd, at the very least. Products like Registry Mechanic, a registry cleaner that has received rave reviews from research websites like Star Reviews, can scan your registry, search for and repair any existing errors and improve the speed and performance of your PC.

A good registry cleaner can't protect you from viruses or other Internet threats, but it can keep your Windows Registry running smoothly. The bottom line? Just as your computer needs comprehensive anti-virus and anti-spyware protection, it also needs a good registry cleaner to keep it in shape.