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Registry Help Page

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If you are planning on upgrading to Vista, there are hardly any drivers available. They are not the same as XP and most likely you will not be able to find drivers for your hardware at this time. Check with your manufacture for Vista drivers before you upgrade or you may be out of luck for a while until someone comes up with drivers. This is another repeat of XP SP 2.

Three things to remember when you are working with computers.
• First thing is "YOU CAN DO IT".
• Second take your time, a little mistake can cause a big problem.
• Third all answers are only a question away.

SAVE THE REGISTRY
BEFORE you do anything with the registry:
BACK IT UP
The minute you open it, hit Registry (win 98)(95 listed below) on the menu and choose Export Registry. Call it "MyReg" or something like that, save it to your desktop, and hit OK. If, in the process of following the steps below, you mess up, you can just get out of the registry editor and double-click that file to restore it right back where it was before you started.

WARNING: Do not use the export to export the whole registry when using Win XP. The exported registry will be merged with the registry, creating problems.

If you are experiencing computer Problems such as slowness, strange icons appearing, tool bars appearing, home page changing, please use one of the following links to check for a virus or trojan.


• Panda Virus Free Online Virus Scan
  
• AVG Anti-virus Program (FREE)
  • AVG is a great "FREE" program and I used to keep a link to the download but they keep changing it all the time and I can't keep this link up to date so Google "Download AVG Free" to get the download link. SORRY!
  
  
  
TABLE OF CONTENTS

WARNING: Please use the following link for Window XP Registry Help

• Win XP Registry Help Page
Registry
• Click to download RegClean
  • A program that cleans the registry. Read the instructions carefully when you download. It is a very easy program to use.
  • It will assist you in cleaning the registry
  • Remove programs from Add/Remove that are no longer on the computer
  • Remove Programs from the startup and msconfig
  • It will not fix all problems.
What is the Registry?
• The Structure of the Registry
• Editing the Registry
• Create a Shortcut to Regedit
• Using Regedit to modify your Registry
• Importing and Exporting Registry Settings
• Regedit Command Line Options
• What to do if you get a Corrupted Registry
• How can I clean out old data from the Registry
• Restore the Registry in Win NT
• Back up the Registry in Win 2K
• Restore the Registry in Win 2K
• Registry Checker
• "Registry editing has been disabled by your administrator error appears when you try to open regedit


What is the Registry?
• The Registry is a database used to store settings and options for the 32 bit versions of Microsoft Windows including Windows NT/2000.
• It contains information and settings for all the hardware, software, users, and preferences of the PC.
• Whenever a user makes changes to a Control Panel settings, or File Associations, System Policies, or installed software, the changes are reflected and stored in the Registry.
• The physical files that make up the registry are stored differently depending on your version of Windows; under Windows NT/2000 the files are contained separately in the %SystemRoot%\System32\Config directory.
• You cannot edit these files directly; you must use a tool usually known as a "Registry Editor" to make any changes (using registry editors will be discussed later in the article).

The Structure of the Registry: Registry window


• The Registry has a hierarchal structure; although it looks complicated the structure is similar to the directory structure on your hard disk, with Regedit being similar to Windows Explorer.
• Each main branch (denoted by a folder icon in the Registry Editor, see left) is called a Hive, and Hives contains Keys.
• Each key can contain other keys (sometimes referred to as sub-keys), as well as Values.
• The values contain the actual information stored in the Registry. There are three types of values; String, Binary, and DWORD - the use of these depends upon the context.
  


• There are six main branches, each containing a specific portion of the information stored in the Registry.
• They are as follows:
  • HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT - This branch contains all of your file association types, OLE information and shortcut data.
  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER - This branch links to the section of HKEY_USERS appropriate for the user currently logged onto the PC.
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE - This branch contains computer specific information about the type of hardware, software, and other preferences on a given PC, this information is used for all users who log onto this computer.
  • HKEY_USERS - This branch contains individual preferences for each user of the computer, each user is represented by a SID sub-key located under the main branch.
  • HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG - This branch links to the section of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE appropriate for the current hardware configuration.
  • HKEY_DYN_DATA - This branch points to the part of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, for use with the Plug-&-Play features of Windows, this section is dynamic and will change as devices are added and removed from the system.
• Each registry value is stored as one of five different data types:
  • REG_BINARY - This type stores the value as raw binary data. Most hardware component information is stored as binary data, and can be displayed in an editor in hexadecimal format.
  • REG_DWORD - This type represents the data by a four byte number and is commonly used for boolean values, such as "0" is disabled and "1" is enabled. Additionally many parameters for device driver and services are this type, and can be displayed in REGEDT32 in binary, hexadecimal and decimal format, or in REGEDIT in hexadecimal and decimal format.
  • REG_EXPAND_SZ - This type is an expandable data string that is string containing a variable to be replaced when called by an application. For example, for the following value, the string "%SystemRoot%" will replaced by the actual location of the directory containing the Windows NT system files. (This type is only available using an advanced registry editor such as REGEDT32)
  • REG_MULTI_SZ - This type is a multiple string used to represent values that contain lists or multiple values, each entry is separated by a NULL character. (This type is only available using an advanced registry editor such as REGEDT32)
  • REG_SZ - This type is a standard string, used to represent human readable text values.

Editing the Registry:
• The Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE) is included with most version of Windows (although you won't find it on the Start Menu) it enables you to view, search and edit the data within the Registry.
• There are several methods for starting the Registry Editor, the simplest is to click on the Start button, then select Run, and in the Open box type "regedit".
• An alternative Registry Editor (REGEDT32.EXE) is available for use with Windows NT/2000, it includes some additional features not found in the standard version, including; the ability to view and modify security permissions, and being able to create and modify the extended string values REG_EXPAND_SZ & REG_MULTI_SZ.

Create a Shortcut to Regedit:
• This can be done by simply right-clicking on a blank area of your desktop
• Selecting New
• Then Shortcut
• Then in the Command line box enter "regedit.exe"
• Then click Next
• Enter a friendly name (e.g. 'Registry Editor')
• Then click Finish and now you can double click on the new icon to launch the Registry Editor.
  

Using Regedit to modify your Registry:
• Once you have started the Regedit you will notice that on the left side there is a tree with folders, and on the right the contents (values) of the currently selected folder.
• Like Windows explorer, to expand a certain branch (see the structure of the registry section), click on the plus sign [+] to the left of any folder, or just double-click on the folder.
• To display the contents of a key (folder), just click the desired key, and look at the values listed on the right side.
• You can add a new key or value by selecting New from the Edit menu, or by right-clicking your mouse.
• You can rename any value and almost any key with the same method used to rename files; right-click on an object and click rename, or click on it twice (slowly), or just press F2 on the keyboard.
• Lastly, you can delete a key or value by clicking on it, and pressing Delete on the keyboard, or by right-clicking on it, and choosing Delete.
• Note:
  • It is always a good idea to backup your registry before making any changes to it. It can be intimidating to a new user, and there is always the possibility of changing or deleting a critical setting causing you to have to reinstall the whole operating system.

Importing and Exporting Registry Settings:
• A great feature of the Registry Editor is its ability to import and export registry settings to a text file, this text file, identified by the .REG extension, can then be saved or shared with other people to easily modify local registry settings.
• You can see the layout of these text files by simply exporting a key to a file and opening it in Notepad, to do this using the Registry Editor select a key, then from the "Registry" menu choose "Export Registry File…", choose a filename and save.
• If you open this file in notepad you will see a file similar to the example below:
  • REGEDIT4
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup]
    • "SetupType"=dword:00000000
    • "CmdLine"="setup -newsetup"
    • "SystemPrefix"=hex:c5,0b,00,00,00,40,36,02
  • The layout is quite simple, REGEDIT4 indicated the file type and version, [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup] indicated the key the values are from, "SetupType"=dword:00000000 are the values themselves the portion after the "=" will vary depending on the type of value they are; DWORD, String or Binary.
  • So by simply editing this file to make the changes you want, it can then be easily distributed and all that need to be done is to double-click, or choose "Import" from the Registry menu, for the settings to be added to the system Registry. Deleting keys or values using a REG file
  • It is also possible to delete keys and values using REG files. To delete a key start by using the same format as the REG file above, but place a "-" symbol in front of the key name you want to delete.
  • For example to delete the [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup] key the reg file would look like this: REGEDIT4 [-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup] The format used to delete individual values is similar, but instead of a minus sign in front of the whole key, place it after the equal sign of the value. For example, to delete the value "SetupType" the file would look like:
    • REGEDIT4
      [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup] "SetupType"=-
  • Use this feature with care, as deleting the wrong key or value could cause major problems within the registry, so remember to always make a backup first.

Regedit Command Line Options:
• Regedit has a number of command line options to help automate its use in either batch files or from the command prompt.


What to do if you get a Corrupted Registry:
• Windows NT
  • On Windows NT you can use either the "Last Known Good" option or RDISK to restore to registry to a stable working configuration.

How can I clean out old data from the Registry:
• Although it's possible to manually go through the Registry and delete unwanted entries, there is software that provides a tool to automate the process, the program is called Reg Clean.
  • It will have to be downloaded
• RegClean analyzes Windows Registry keys stored in a common location in the Windows Registry.
• It finds keys that contain erroneous values, it removes them from the Windows Registry after having recording those entries in the Undo.Reg file.
• Click to download Reg clean
• A program that cleans the registry. Read the instructions when you download carefully.
• This will not fix all problems.

Restore the Registry in Win NT
• On Windows NT you can use either the "Last Known Good" option or RDISK to restore to registry to a stable working configuration.

How to Back Up the Registry in Win 2K
• To back up the whole registry, use the Backup utility to create an Emergency Repair Disk (ERD), or back up the System State (which includes the registry, the COM+ Class Registration database, and your boot files). For additional information about using the Backup utility to create an ERD, use the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
  • Q231777 How to Create an Emergency Repair Disk in Windows 2000
• For additional information about using the Backup utility to back up the System State, use the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
  • Q240363 HOW TO: Use the Backup Program to Back Up and Restore the System State in Windows 2000

How to Restore the Registry in Win 2K
• To restore the whole registry, restore the System State from a backup. For additional information about using the Backup utility to restore the System State, use the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
  • Q240363 HOW TO: Use the Backup Program to Back Up and Restore the System State in Windows 2000
• Note that if you use the option to back up the registry when you create an Emergency Repair Disk. Backup also creates updated copies of the registry files in the
  • %SystemRoot%\Repair\Regback
  folder. If you cannot start Windows 2000 after you edit the registry, you can manually replace the registry files in the
  • %SystemRoot%\System32\Config
  folder with the copies in the
  • %SystemRoot%\Repair\Regback
  folder by using Recovery Console.

How to Create an Emergency Repair Disk in Windows 2000
• To create an ERD:
• Click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Backup.
• On the Tools menu, click Create an Emergency Repair Disk.
• You can use the ERD for the following repair functions:
  • Inspect and repair the startup environment.
  • Verify the Windows 2000 system files and replace missing or damaged files.
  • Inspect and repair the boot sector.
• NOTE: When you attempt to repair Windows 2000, it asks if you have an ERD diskette, if you do not have the diskette, press L and the computer attempts to locate your Windows 2000 installation to perform repairs. This process looks for the Boot.ini file on your computer partition and reads the ARC paths to your operating system(s). The computer then attempts to load the following hive for each ARC path:
  • %systemroot%\System32\Config\Software
• This attempt finds which installation versions matches the installation CD-ROM used to do the repair.
• If the Boot.ini file cannot be read, or the software hive is corrupt, the repair is not able to proceed. At this time, you must have a ERD diskette containing a valid Setup.log file for that computer before repairs are possible.
• The registry hives saved during setup are in the following folder:
  • %systemroot%\repair
• The registry hives are used during a FAST repair only, otherwise you need to use Recovery Console to manually copy a more recent registry hive saved by NTbackup in the following folder:
  • %systemroot%\repair\regback

Register Checker:
• When you start your computer, Registry Checker automatically scans for serious problems and will fix the registry from a backup copy. Since Registry Checker is a utility, you can also run it without having to restart your computer.
• To run Registry Checker, follow these directions:
  • Click the Start button
  • Programs
  • Accessories
  • System Tools
  • Click on System Information
  • When the System Information application opens, mouse over the Tools menu and click Registry Checker.

Registry editing has been disabled by your administrator error appears when you try to open regedit
• That's another restriction. Here's a link. Go here and download unlock.reg Double click on it to enter into the registry. Then try again.
  • http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/190/