Post by OmnipotentEntity

Many people have heard about the scary place where you can break your computer, it's called the registry. And you can! But if you know what you're doing you can tweak a whole host of settings that you would normally not be able to touch.

First of all, what is the registry?

The registry is simply a place to put configuration information that you can access at a later date. Instead of using numerous configuration files, Windows decided it would be a very good idea to put everything in the same file, so that no one would find out how terrible the FAT32 filesystem was. It stuck.

The registry is comprised of 5 files in Windows XP and 6 in Windows Vista and Windows 7. These files are called hives, for reasons that urban legends state deal with a practical joke about bees. They are as follows:

XP: DEFAULT, SAM, SECURITY, SOFTWARE, and SYSTEM
Vista/7: COMPONENTS, DEFAULT, SAM, SECURITY, SOFTWARE, and SYSTEM

• DEFAULT: This is where the default user profile is kept.
• SAM: This is where your passwords are stored, and all of your user information.
• SECURITY: Nothing much in here.
• SOFTWARE: Biggest key, contains all of your software configuration data.
• SYSTEM: Contains your system configuration data.
• COMPONENTS: Something related to the new way that Windows Vista/7 does updates. I think it's related to winsxs somehow, but I'm not sure.

These files are located in %systemroot%\system32\config\

How to edit your registry:

You can either use regedit.exe, (Start -> Run -> regedit) or use the reg command from your command prompt. I recommend using regedit.exe. It's easier.

Tags: howto, registry, Windows