Dave Taylor answers free tech support questions about a wide variety of business and technical topics, including blogging, iphone help, ipod help, AdSense, MySpace, Sony PSP help, Mp3 players, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Linux, SEO, Mac OS X, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

What is the Windows Registry File?

What is the Registry file, and how can I work with it in Windows XP?

Dave's Answer:

I have to say it, what a great question! Us Windows folks talk about editing the registry time and again, but rarely step back and answer the basic question of what the registry actually is. Since Windows is the flagship product of Microsoft, let's start by viewing their definition:

The Microsoft Computer Dictionary, Fifth Edition, defines the registry as:

A central hierarchical database used in Microsoft Windows 9x, Windows CE, Windows NT, and Windows 2000 used to store information necessary to configure the system for one or more users, applications and hardware devices.

The Registry contains information that Windows continually references during operation, such as profiles for each user, the applications installed on the computer and the types of documents that each can create, property sheet settings for folders and application icons, what hardware exists on the system, and the ports that are being used.

The Registry replaces most of the text-based .ini files used in Windows 3.x and MS-DOS configuration files, such as the Autoexec.bat and Config.sys. Although the Registry is common to several Windows operating systems, there are some differences among them.
Registry data is stored in binary files.

Okay. That's not particularly clear, though, and it skips the fact that Windows XP has a registry file too. Here's a better explanation from Jerry Honeycutt:

The Windows XP registry is the database in which the operating system stores most of its settings. It's where programs store their settings. It contains information about what hardware is installed on the system. Importantly, the registry defines relationships between different parts of the operating system's user interface. For example, the registry defines what you see on the desktop; how the Start menu and taskbar work; and how the operating system starts.

Make sense?

In terms of editing the registry, here are some articles worth reading:

Hope that clears everything up for you. Good luck editing the registry, and please be careful and make sure you have good backups!

Help others find this article at Del.icio.us, Digg, Netscape, Reddit, and Stumble Upon

Categorized: Windows Help (Article 4020)
Tagged:
Previous: How do I change the publication date of weblog entries?
Next: How do I learn Unix on my Mac?

Subscribe!

Never miss another useful Q&A article again! Subscribe to AskDaveTaylor with Google Reader.

Comments

Sounds good. Just one question: exactly where on my C drive can the registry be found?

Posted by: Mark at June 2, 2005 12:14 AM

I'm not positive, but I'm pretty darn sure that it's in C:\WINDOWS\ but really, your best bet is start with the REGEDIT program, which can be found as C:\WINDOWS\REGEDIT

Posted by: Dave Taylor at June 2, 2005 6:38 AM

Dave, great article, but the last link (Don't Fear the Registry) has an extraneous "Z" on the end, which didn't take me to the article. I found it, though, by going to the main site and searching on "fear" and "registry." ;)

Posted by: TiUTiger at June 2, 2005 7:52 PM

Posted by: TiUTiger at June 2, 2005 7:53 PM

the best question yet-where is the registry-after extensive searching my computer and the internet for info-no-one seeems to know

Posted by: Karl Eriksen at November 17, 2005 5:35 PM

PLS! How can I get rid of Dr. Watson announcing that 'windows 2000 returned an error code of 87' with an annoying bell & 'The parameter is incorrect'.

Posted by: Al at January 24, 2008 12:01 PM

Hi Dave,

I got the theoritical knowledge of Registry files, but please give me details like how exactly it works in practical scenario. Since it is a system file what are the things that can be edited in that? Please give me a clear cut view.

Thank you,
Thejas

Posted by: Thejas Shenoy at February 16, 2008 12:51 AM

I was wondering if I wrote a program that monitored the size of the registry and if it changed immediately report that its changed and had a backup of the registry to replace the changed registry with. Would this stop spyware? Obviously you would have to have a prompt in case the change was warranted but I was just wondering if something like this is possible.

Posted by: Bill at February 27, 2008 2:56 PM

Dave,

Great article on registry files.One question,if i want to write a wsh script which will call HKEY_CURRENT_USER to get the current user profile,how i can do that?

Posted by: Reetam at March 29, 2008 2:06 PM

hi friends , i have one problem. my is very slow but it have anti virus (quick heal 2008 key ver).what can i do now , is am i delete any registry keys or task messenger , please tell me.i am very bodaring.

Posted by: vijay at May 8, 2008 11:06 PM

I have a lot to say, but ...

I have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but most of all I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a chai!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!