What Is CLSID?

Before you go ahead and download a registry cleaner understand why it is necessary. As a web page loads on your system, you may be prompted to install several ActiveX components before the page can be fully downloaded. This is so that the browser can interpret the ActiveX components and display them properly on the system. This only would only occur if the controls used in the web page were not already on the system. If you decline permission for the installation, the page will not function properly. However, once these ActiveX controls are on your system, you won’t have to download them again, even when you come across them on other web sites. These downloads clutter up the registry over time and need to be removed with the help of some registry shareware cleaner.

Other ID Tags

So how can the web page determine that the required ActiveX controls are not installed on the system or not? The browser does this by referring to the ‘CLSID’ in the ‘OBJECT’ tag of the web page. To cut a long explanation short, an ActiveX control is added to a web page using the and container tags. The ‘CLSID’ is unique to each ActiveX component; it is with the ‘CLSID’ that you specify which control you are using. The Registry has a special section for CLSID and they run into thousands of ID’s. The useless records in the Registry have to be removes with the aid of a registry cleaner. Free PC registry cleaners are available for download and help keep the system running smoothly. If you were to look at a CLSID it would look something like this: CLS ID: 99B42120-6EC7-11CF-A6C7-00AA00A47DD2.

So How Does CLSID work

‘CLSID’ is a unique registry-identifying component that is used to identify an ActiveX control. The actual download process consists of six different steps. First, Internet Explorer will process the ‘OBJECT’ tag in the browser code and get your requirements from it. Then Internet Explorer will determine if a download is needed by checking different things. Then Internet Explorer will process the ‘CAB’ file and the ‘INF’ file. Then the control and its dependencies will be installed. Finally, the control will show up on the screen.

The Registry is the centre of all records for the system. The registry records all the activities such as the users and the hardware details of the system. It also records where what program or file is located on the disk. This is why the registry gets filled up with redundant entries over time and as it gets older it keeps building up and slowing down the system. Registry Repair and Cleaners are ideal for such times when your computer has grown sluggish and irritatingly slow. PC registry cleaners can greatly enhance the speed and performance of your system.

It is all code language and you need not understand the technicalities of it. Suffice it to know that if the browser determines, through the ‘CLSID’ on your browser that your system already has that ‘CLSID’ in the registry the browser will load and display the page, else it will prompt you to download that particular control.