Windows Registry is the database used to store configurations, settings and options for Microsoft Windows systems. The database has a hierarchical structure.

The Windows Registry provides information about the settings for low-level operating system and applications running on the platforms. The kernel, user interface, device drivers, services, SAM and third party applications are some platforms which use the Window Registry.

The Windows Registry also enables to access counter which helps in analyzing the performance of 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.

Registry Values refer to the pairs of name/data stored within the keys.

The Windows API functions, querying and manipulating values of registry, get value names in a different way from the key path. They may also use handle which identify the parent key.

The terminology seems to be misleading because the values resemble to an associative array. This associative array uses standard terminology for referring the name part of the value as a key.

These terms are an archive from 16-bit registry in Windows

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.

This advantage could have serious consequences e.g. a slow PC if Registry editing is done carelessly. Thus, Microsoft recommends that before editing the Registry, backups should be performed to avoid damages. In fact, many industry experts like editors and authors of leading trade magazines have recommended this.

Windows 3.x, also known as the “Registration Info Editor” or “Registration Editor”, demonstrated the implementation of current Registry tools.

It was mainly only an applications database that facilitates editing embedded OLE objects.

But the users need to be cautious as the two editors on the aforementioned platforms differ tremendously.

For the first time, the two programs were merged into one by Windows XP, which adopted the traditional REGEDIT.EXE as interface and added to it the functionality of REGEDT32.EXE.

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

Apart from Microsoft, Registry could also be edited in LINUX with the help of open source Offline NT Password & Registry Editor for files’ editing.

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