It is impossible to prevent errors from occurring entirely, but by knowing what to look for, you’ll be much better able to troubleshoot the problem and protect your Windows registry. Here we’ll look at the two most fundamental categories of errors affecting Windows registries: Program Errors and System Errors.

Program Errors

* Bugs - or applications that are poorly written. Having said that, all applications have bugs to some degree, which is why all applications are regularly and frequently updated and upgraded. Most often, the bugs are minor, and cause negligible inconvenience, if anything. However, other bugs can run amock on your computer and cause all sorts of problems.

* Incompatible Drivers - Generally, before a driver is released, it is tested in multiple environments, however it is impossible to test all combinations of pieces and parts to ensure total universal compatibility. And so it happens that sometimes a driver is incompatible with a particular system.

* Wrong Driver - Oftentimes, a user will inadvertently try to activate a device using an incompatible driver. In those cases the device will either not work correctly or not work at all.

* Application adding incorrect entries into the Windows registry during the installation process - If the SETUP.INF file that most applications use to relay pertinent installation information contains a mistake, the application is not likely to work properly.

* Application makes incorrect associations between themselves and certain file extensions - Every application records default document types in your registry - extensions that let the computer know that when you double-click on them, the particular application in question will open in order to load the document. But quite often, completely incompatible applications will use the same extension, and then the document won’t load properly or, in many cases, at all.

* Uninstall errors - Even when you properly run the correct uninstall program that comes the application you wish to remove from your computer, the Windows registry can still be damaged. This can happen when an uninstall program tries to remove registry entries related to that application and ends up removing entries

required for other applications to run properly.

System Problems

* Viruses - Viruses are malicious attempts to infect another’s system by irreparable altering a system’s files. 

* Registry size - If your registry grows to equal or larger than the maximum registry size allowed according to your control panel, it will become unusable and you are likely to receive a STOP error. An easy way to avoid this error is to increase your maximum registry size in your control panel.

* Power difficulties -Registry problems can be caused by brownouts, power spikes, and electrical surges, though a decent surge protector can help limit your exposure to damage. Beyond that, an UPS (uninterruptible power supply) is the only way to truly protect against this source of potential registry damage.

* Disk errors - If you replace your hard disk - whether for capacity reasons or because your system has experienced hardware failure, you’ll have to restore your entire Windows registry from a backup. But sometimes, only a cluster or sector of the drive is damaged, making certain parts of your disk unreadable, your registry files among them.

Other ways that problems could arise with your Windows registry is if you make manual changes to your registry or copy a registry from another system.

By knowing just how your Windows registry can become corrupted, you can begin to improve the techniques you employ to manage your system and start understanding just how you can take better care of your computer operating system.