{"id":523396,"date":"2010-04-11T18:30:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-11T22:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techie-buzz.com\/how-to\/how-to-use-regedit.html"},"modified":"2010-04-27T10:05:32","modified_gmt":"2010-04-27T14:05:32","slug":"how-to-use-regedit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/523396","title":{"rendered":"How To Use Regedit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"reg-icon\"<\/a> Windows stores its configuration settings in a database called the registry<\/em>. These settings are constantly modified by the many different programs running in Windows. Users can also make changes to the registry by using the Windows registry editor, regedit<\/em>. Making changes to the registry is a common way to correct problems and change the way Windows looks and acts.<\/p>\n

However, making the wrong registry changes can cripple your Windows system. So before you start hacking away with regedit, you should learn a little about it. This tutorial will explain some of the features in regedit and tell you how to use it safely.<\/p>\n

Backing up the registry<\/h5>\n

Back up the registry before you make changes. One convenient way to do this is to use Windows System Restore<\/em>. Here\u2019s how to use System Restore<\/a>. Another method for backing up the Windows registry is using a free utility named ERUNT, and here is how ERUNT works<\/a>. Make sure you understand one of these methods before going any further.<\/p>\n

Launching regedit<\/h5>\n

Unlike most other system tools, regedit will not appear in any of your menus when you click the Start button. That means you\u2019ll have to launch it some other way. I\u2019ll tell you how to start it using the Run dialog.<\/p>\n

To bring up the Run dialog, hold down the Windows key and tap the R key.<\/p>\n

\"winkey<\/a><\/p>\n

Now type regedit<\/em> into the command entry box and click OK.<\/p>\n

\"start-run-regedit\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Using Regedit<\/h5>\n

Once launched, regedit will pop up pretty quickly. Here\u2019s what it looks like:<\/p>\n

\"regedit-hives-displayed\"<\/a><\/p>\n

First, I\u2019ll mention that you can see a \u201cHelp\u201d menu in regedit and you\u2019ll find plenty of information in it that I won\u2019t cover in this tutorial.<\/p>\n

The navigation pane (on the left) is showing the 5 main \u201chive\u201d keys, which always start with the word HKEY. To navigate deeper into the registry, you need to click on the plus (+) signs next to a hive key. The same applies the further into registry you go. Once you click on a plus, it will display all the sub-keys under that key and the plus will change into a minus (-) sign. Clicking on the minus sign will collapse the structure back to the way it was.<\/p>\n

In the view below, you can see that I\u2019ve located the key for a piece of software that I had installed.<\/p>\n

\"regedit-delete-key\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At the bottom of the window you can see the registry path to this key. Right clicking on a key will bring up a menu showing several actions.<\/p>\n