Registry for Microsoft Windows 98
The hierarchical database - Registry - for Windows stores settings and options for configuration on MS Windows operating systems.
The entire settings for low-level operating system components along with applications operable on that operating system are contained in the registry. It finds application in the kernels, SAM, device drivers, services, third party applications and user interface.
Windows registry also offers a way to access counters to profile performance of the system.
The primary function of the Windows registry, when it was initially launched with Windows 3.1, was to accumulate configuration details regarding COM-based components.
But the use of Windows Registry extended with the launch of Windows NT and Windows 95. It included a large number of per-program INI files wherein configuration settings for Windows had been stored.
The Windows registry has two essentials: keys and values.
Inside keys, Registry Values are stored and they actually represent name/data pairs.
Manipulation of registry values is carried out by the API functions of Windows, which access names of values discretely from their key paths and/or from Windows handle that acknowledges the parent key.
Although, the term is a little bit confusing, with values resembling associative arrays, wherein standard definition suggests that a key is the name portion of value.
In Windows 3, keys were devoid of containing arbitrary names/data pairs, instead they contained only one unnamed value that needs to be a string.
The Windows registry can be edited in a manual way in MS Windows by executing regedt32.exe or regedit.exe in the directory of Windows.
Although, neglectfully editing the registry can result in irreparable damage or you end up with a slow computer. Therefore, Microsoft and several industry experts, including the writers and editors of leading trade magazines, have highly recommended to perform backups of the registry prior to editing it.
A direct implementation of the current registry tool was seen in Windows 3.x, known as the “Registration Editor” or “Registration Info Editor”.
Typically, it was merely a database of applications that are used to edit OLE objects embedded in documents.
But the users need to be cautious as the two editors on the aforementioned platforms differ tremendously.
An integrated program of these two distinct programs was firstly seen in Windows XP. The operating system embraced the REGEDIT.EXE interface and infused the REGEDT32.EXE functionality into it.
These editors do not show such differences on Windows XP and newer systems. For instance - REGEDIT.EXE is the more refined and sophisticated editor, while REGEDT32.EXE is only a stub that invokes REGEDIT.EXE.
The Registry Editor enables users to do the following functions easily:
- Importing and exporting .REG files, exporting data in the binary hive format
- Creating, manipulating, renaming and deleting registry keys, subkeys, values and value data
- Setting permissions based on ACLs (Windows NT-based systems only)
- Loading, manipulating and unloading registry hive format files (Windows NT-based systems only)
- Remotely editing the registry on another networked computer
Registry editing in Linux is also possible by making use of Offline NT Password and Registry Editor for editing files.