Windows Registry for Windows 2000
Registry is the name of Windows hierarchical database, that Windows uses to store options and configurations for a Microsoft Operating System.
The registry contains set-up for components of low-level operating systems and the applications based on that platform. Registry is used by device drivers, the kernels, SAM, user interface, services and all the third party software.
Windows registry also offers a way to access counters to profile performance of the system.
At the time registry was first coupled with Windows 3.1, its main aim was to store information on configuration of components based on COM.
The use of registry, with the induction of Windows NT and Windows 95, was expanded to include the organization of abundant INI files for each program whose use was previously made for storing settings of configuration for programs on Windows.
The Windows registry includes two basic elements values and keys.
Inside keys, Registry Values are stored and they actually represent name/data pairs.
The Windows API functions, which query and maneuver registry values, obtain the names of values distinctly from the key path and/or from the handle that recognizes the parent key.
However, the terminology is misguiding to some extent, as values are identical to an associative array, where basic terminology would recognize the values name portion as a “key”.
The terminologies are a proffer from the 16-bit registry of Windows 3, wherein keys did not possess arbitrary pairs of name/data, but instead had just a single unnamed value that essentially needed to be a string.
Theres provision for manually editing registry in MS Windows by carrying out the execution of regedt32.exe and regedit.exe in Windows directories.
However, sloppy registry editing can lead to a slow PC or losses that cant be reversed. So, performing registry backups must be the priority, and the same has been advised by the software giant Microsoft and various other professionals, authors and editors of business magazines.
A direct implementation of the current registry tool was seen in Windows 3.x, known as the “Registration Editor” or “Registration Info Editor”.
This was a database of applications primarily used to edit inserted OLE objects in documents.
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.
However, the distinctions do not occur with Windows XP as well as the newer versions REGEDIT.EXE being the improved editor and REGEDT32.EXE being purely a stub invoking REGEDIT.EXE.
Following functions can be performed using the Registry Editor:
- Loading, manipulating and unloading registry hive format files (Windows NT-based systems only)
- Setting permissions based on ACLs (Windows NT-based systems only)
- Bookmarking user-selected registry keys as Favorites
- Finding particular strings in key names, value names and value data
- 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.
