Are you a computer user? Have you heard of windows registry? Do you have any idea about this?
In this article I will try to give you an overview of windows registry and its structure and basic of editing and maintaining the registry.
In computing, Windows Registry was defined as a database that is used to hoards configuration settings and option for Microsoft Windows. It include settings and information for all software, hardware, and users of the computer like kernel, user interface and device drivers. Therefore any modification made by the user whether in control panel or system policies, everything can be seen in your registry.
The first Windows Registry was introduced in Windows 3.1. During that time, the main purpose of Windows Registry was to hoard all information for the COM based components. With Windows 95 and NT, registry was used to organize the INI files which had been used to hoard all configuration of the operating system.
Each file in the registry is stored according on the version of your Windows operating system. For example in Windows 95 and 98 registry was contained in two hidden files in the directory, these are the System.dat and User.dat. For Windows ME, Classes.dat was added.
Let us know the registry deeper, know its structure.
The Windows Registry has its hierarchical structure like the one of Windows Explorer. Each section of the registry is called hive, named by API definitions commonly starts with "HKEY". Each hive contains two elements. These are the keys and values.
Let us define it further.
Hives are generally named by their Windows API definitions, which all begin "HKEY". They are abbreviated to a three- or four-letter short name starting with "HK" (e.g. HKCU and HKLM).
When you say registry keys, it is almost the same to a folder. Each key has its own subkeys.
Here are six root keys in Microsoft Windows:
• HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT - It contains all the information or file to support Windows short-cut and other basic feature of Windows user interface like drag and drop.
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER - It is connected to HKEY_USERS and contains all information on log-on, and settings of Start menu and desktop.
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE - It contains information on the software, hardware and even other preferences of the computer - that is used by all computer users.
• HKEY_USERS - It contain preferences for each computer user using SID.
• HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG - It is linked to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE that is used for hardware configuration.
• HKEY_DYN_DATA - It is linked to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, commonly used for Plug-&-Play features of Windows. This branch was said to be dynamic.
On the other hand, Registry Values are also called subkeys. It is the real information hoard in the Registry. In general, there are three types of value: DWORD, String and Binary that was used based on its content. The name of Value contains backslashes that makes it hard for the users to distinguish its key.
Now, let us try to edit your computers registry.
Regedit.exe, a registry editor is included in Windows but you cannot see it visually on the Start Menu. To start or launch the editor, select RUN from the Start menu, type regedit and press Enter key from the keyboard.
Let me remind you that is highly recommended that you back first the registry before performing any modification.
When you are inside the regedit, you can modify the value accordingly. Also, you can change the name of any value as if you are renaming a file.
If in case, you committed an error, load your back-up registry setting.
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