What is the best registry cleaner for windows 11?

As far as I know, using Disk Cleanup is the safest way to perform general maintenance. While it is primarily a storage tool, it is highly effective as a registry cleaner software in Windows 11.

The registry often becomes bloated because it contains "pointers" (addresses) to files that no longer exist. When you use Disk Cleanup to delete these abandoned files, Windows' background maintenance tasks can more easily identify and retire the corresponding invalid registry keys.

Step 1: Press Win + R, type cleanmgr, and hit Enter.

Step 2: Choose your main drive (usually (C:)) and click OK.

Step 3: Elevate to System Files: Once the first window opens, click the button labeled "Clean up system files" at the bottom left. You will need to select the (C:) drive again.

Step 4: You can safely check almost every box, but pay special attention to these three for the best registry impact:

• Windows Update Cleanup: Removes old versions of updates. This clears out thousands of registry entries related to previous software versions.
• Device Driver Packages: Deletes old versions of drivers that are no longer in use, cleaning up the driver-related hive of the registry.
• Downloaded Program Files: Cleans up temporary ActiveX controls and Java applets that often leave behind "orphaned" registry keys.

In fact, traditional Windows 11 registry cleaners work by searching for "broken links." The problem is that many links in the registry are supposed to be broken (they are placeholders for future features or dormant system components).

Disk Cleanup only removes files that Windows knows are redundant. When the file is gone, the registry simply ignores the pointer, which is much safer than deleting the pointer and risking a system crash because a critical service couldn't find its path.