Navigating The Windows Registry

The Windows Registry is a central location for maintaining operating system, application, user, And hardware information. If you make a change to the operating system, for instance, that Change is reflected in the Registry. In theory, you could make the change to the Registry Yourself and get the same result, but as you'll see, the Registry is complex, and it's best to Only edit it manually when you have no other option.     
      

Look in on your Registry
                                

To view the contents of your Windows Registry, you use a tool called ‘Registry Editor'. In Windows XP, click ‘Run' in the ‘Start' menu, type ‘regedit', and press ‘Enter'. In Windows Vista/7, open the ‘Start' menu, type ‘regedit' in the ‘Search' field, and press ‘Enter'.
                                              

The Registry is divided into keys, subkeys, and values. If it helps, you can think of the Registry's Structure as being similar to that of your folders and files in ‘My Computer'. Keys and subkeys Are arrange in a hierarchical order, while values reside within a specific key like files within a Folder. In the Registry Editor, you'll see keys and subkeys listed on the left side of the window. Double-click a key to view subkeys. Click a key or subkey to see the values contained in it Displayed on the right side of the Registry Editor.

Registry Organization                      

                   
In WinXP, Vista, and Win7, you'll notice five main keys. These keys are often abbreviated to Save space. These keys, with common abbreviations listed in parenthesis, are:

                 

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT (HKCR)

HKEY_CURRENT_USER (HKCU)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE (HKLM)

HKEY_USERS (HKU)

HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG (HKCC).

                        

Different types of information are grouped into these five main keys. Aspects relating to the Windows user interface are commonly found in HKCR. This includes file extension maps. If you Double-click a DOC file in Windows Explorer, Windows will consult HKCR to Decide how to open the file (in this case, it will decide to open the file in Microsoft Word).

                     

HKU, as the name implies, contains data relating to each user account on the system. HKCU is a subject of HKU that points specifically to the configuration settings of the user That is currently logged into Windows.