Windows Registry for Microsoft 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.
The Windows Registry was first launched in the market with Windows 3.1 to store important configuration information for 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 Registry has two essentials: keys and values.
Stored inside the keys are the pairs of name/data known as registry values.
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.
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.
Window 3s 16-bit registry presents the terms, wherein keys included merely a value that is unnamed (which required to be a string), but they couldnt have arbitrary duo of name/data.
The biggest advantage of Registry in Microsoft Windows is that it can be edited manually with the help of regedit.exe or regedt32.exe in the Windows directory.
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.
Here is the test of alertness as there are a lot of distinctions between the two editors available on these operating systems.
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.
The Registry Editor permits users to carry out functions that follow:
- 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
Registry editing in Linux is also possible by making use of Offline NT Password and Registry Editor for editing files.
Written on January 25th, 2010 with
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