1. Use the “System Restore” feature of Windows XP to back up your computer’s registry in case something should happen to go wrong while removing the registry errors. To create the backup, go to the “Start” menu and “Run,” enter “%SystemRoot%\\system32\\restore\\rstrui.exe” into the “Run” box and click “OK.”
2. Choose “Create a Restore Point” on the first screen of the “Welcome to System Restore” window and click “Next.” Enter a name to help you recognize the restore point and click “Create.”

3. Download a registry cleaner to your computer. Free registry cleaners that are compatible with Windows XP include Free Registry Cleaner, Glary Registry Repair, Registry Cleaner and RegToy (see Resources).
4. Install the registry cleaner to your computer. Get to the downloaded program by selecting “Start,” “My Computer,” the “C:” drive and then the “Downloads” folder. Double-click the icon that has the name of the program you downloaded. When the setup wizard for the program launches, follow the screens to install.
5. Launch the registry cleaner. The main page of the program contains the only tool you need to find and remove errors in your computer’s registry.
6. Click the “Scan” or “Full Scan” option on the main page of the registry cleaner. Press the “Scan Now” button if prompted again. The registry cleaner scans the entire registry of your Windows XP system. As it finds errors, the files that contain those errors are listed in the registry cleaner window.
7. Move to the next screen of the registry cleaner when the scan is finished by clicking “Next.” A report of the errors found in the registry is displayed on the screen. Click “Next” again to get to the next screen.
8. Choose the “Delete” option offered on the last page of the registry cleaner. The registry cleaner removes all of the files with errors from your computer.