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Windows Registry, Some Basic Understanding

The Windows Registry is a central database that stores configuration settings for applications installed on a computer. It contains information in a binary format using 1s and 0s. The Registry can be edited using the Windows Registry Editor, which is launched using the "regedit" command. The Registry contains five main root entries: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT for file associations, HKEY_CURRENT_USER for the current user's profile, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE for system information, HKEY_USERS for all user profiles, and HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG for runtime information. The Registry stores settings that can be modified to customize Windows and applications, but it should only be edited by users familiar with its structure to avoid breaking the

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152 views3 pages

Windows Registry, Some Basic Understanding

The Windows Registry is a central database that stores configuration settings for applications installed on a computer. It contains information in a binary format using 1s and 0s. The Registry can be edited using the Windows Registry Editor, which is launched using the "regedit" command. The Registry contains five main root entries: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT for file associations, HKEY_CURRENT_USER for the current user's profile, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE for system information, HKEY_USERS for all user profiles, and HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG for runtime information. The Registry stores settings that can be modified to customize Windows and applications, but it should only be edited by users familiar with its structure to avoid breaking the

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WINDOWS REGISTRY,SOME BASIC UNDERSTANDING

For the peoples who use Windows, „Windows Registry‟ is not a new word at all. The
registry is a central database of all configuration settings for most of the applications
installed on the computer. Windows stores all its settings in this „Registry‟ itself. The
„Windows Registry Editor‟ allows us to configure many hidden settings for windows and
other applications installed, which are not accessible by the interface of the particular
software itself. You can easily manipulate and modify the values of registry and
improve the PC‟s performance. However, do it carefully, because modify the right
setting and your computer gets a boost, modify the wrong one and you end up with a
non-booting system. In my previous post I wrote about „Autoruns‟, it can also
manipulate registry. (Read here)

To edit registry, we can use „Windows Registry Editor‟, which is preinstalled in Windows
itself. It can be launched by using the command „regedit‟ in the „RUN‟ dialog box,
which can be launched by pressing “Windows key+R”. On start-up, „Windows Registry‟
will show up the following five root entries.

 HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT

 HKEY_CURRENT_USER

 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

 HKEY_USERS

 HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG

All the settings given above are not stored in a single file. They are spread across
multiple files in logical groups called „hives‟. The combination of hives makes
„Windows Registry‟. . The values are stored here in binary format. That means only “1”
and “0” is used here. “1” means “yes”, whereas the value “0” represents “no”. Let us
look into the details of these settings.
1. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT: It is abbreviated as HKCR. This part of registry is used for

storing file associations and information about the applications registered for

handling different data types.

2. HKEY_CURRENT_USER: This is abbreviated as HKCU. This sub-tree contains the

user profile for the user who is currently logged on. This profile contains

environment variables, personal program groups, desktop settings, network

connection, application preference etc. a new HKEY_CURRENT_USER sub-tree is

created each time a user logs on. The data for this sub-tree comes from the

profile of current user. This sub-tree provides easier access to the data. The

values can be viewed and changed accordingly to your desire.

3. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE: It is abbreviated as KHLM. This sub-tree contains

information about local computer system, including hardware and operating

system info, such as “bus type, system memory, device driver etc..”. The

settings in this section are arranged as “Company/Product/Version” format.

Thus settings for Microsoft‟s own applications will be found in „HKLM-Software-

Microsoft‟. The settings can be modified accordingly.

4. HKEY_USERS: This key contains the configuration of each user. It has one sub-

key for each user after the user‟s “Security ID”(SID).

5. HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG: This part of Registry contains the information that is

generated during the runtime.

Apart from the command „regedit‟, advanced registry modification can be done using
the „Microsoft Management Console‟, which can be launched by using the command
“mmc” in Run dialog box. In addition, you can launch „Group Policy Editor‟ by using the
command „gpedit.mmc‟. This allows you to configure your computer‟s “policies” such
as password strength restriction etc.
At last I would like to say that Windows Registry is a very vast database. Do not modify
or manipulate anything, if you exactly don‟t know what you are doing!

Source: http://alltech360.wordpress.com/2012/05/05/windows-registrysome-basic-
understanding/

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