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DADDY BOB'S COMPUTER Q & A
March 30,
2008
Q.
I have heard the term "registry" often used
with respect to a computer. Just what is the
registry?
A.
The Windows registry is a composed of a
couple of files that are arranged like a
normal Windows Directory. It is the main
storage place for the settings and options
for the Windows operating system. It is
present in all current 32-bit versions,
64-bit versions. It contains information and
settings for all the hardware, operating
system and most other software settings, the
users, their preferences etc.
Whenever
you make changes in the Control Panel
settings, to the file associations, any
system policies, or most installed software,
the changes are reflected and stored in the
registry. The registry also provides runtime
information such as performance counters and
currently active hardware.
The
Windows registry was first used in Windows
95 to centralize this storage area.
Previously, this kind of information was
stored in .ini files that were scattered all
over the place, and very difficult to find,
edit, track or control.
This
central location of all this important
information has many advantages, but also
one major disadvantage. It becomes very easy
for the novice to make a wrong change to the
registry that could have disastrous
consequences, including setting Windows to
an unusable state. For this reason, there is
always a warning mentioned with registry
editing that extreme care must be taken, and
a backup is always recommended.
Windows
includes a program called "regedit" that
facilitates viewing or editing the registry.
Prior to XP, there were two programs,
regedit.exe and regedt32,exe. Generally
speaking, regedt32 was the more powerful and
allowed deeper viewing and edition. However,
with XP and Vista, all the functions of both
were incorporated into regedit, and entering
either one displays the same thing.
The
registry contains two basic elements, keys
and values. Registry Keys are similar to
folders and each key can contain subkeys,
which may contain further subkeys, and so
on. Any of these keys or subkeys can also
contain values. The Keys are referenced the
same way that the path to a file is done in
the windows directory. As an example;
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows
would refer to the subkey "Windows" of the
subkey "Microsoft" of the subkey "Software"
of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE key.
Registry
Values contain the value name followed by
its value. These values can be in three main
different forms. String, Binary or DWord. A
string is any combination of characters
consisting of text and may also contain
numbers. Binary is the actual digits, and
can be displayed as 1's and 0's, or more
likely in hex format. A "word" in computing
is simply a fixed-sized group of bits that
are handled together by the machine. A DWord
consists of four 8-bit bytes.
I could
go into a lot more detail, but won't as it
gets a whole lot more technical and
difficult to explain or understand.
Suffice it to know the since the registry
contains just about everything concerning
the how, who, when and why of Windows.
Therefore, it is critical that modifications
not be made without a pretty good
understanding of what it is all about. It is
also a very good idea to know how to recover
from a boo-boo just in case you create one. |
