What Is the Windows Registry Used For?
This part of Windows stores much of the information and settings for software programs, hardware devices, user preferences, and operating system configurations. For example, when a new program is installed, a new set of instructions and file references may be added to the registry in a specific location for the program, and others that may interact with it, to refer to for more information like where the files are located, which options to use in the program, etc. In many ways, the registry can be thought of as a kind of DNA for the Windows operating system.
How to Access the Windows Registry
The Windows Registry is accessed and configured using the Registry Editor program, a free registry editing utility included by default with every version of Microsoft Windows going back to Windows 95. Registry Editor isn’t a program you download. Instead, it can be accessed by executing regedit from the Command Prompt or from the search or Run box from the Start menu. See How to Open Registry Editor if you need help. This editor is the face of the registry and is the way to view and make changes to the registry, but it’s not the registry itself. Technically, the registry is the collective name for various database files located in the Windows installation directory.
How to Use the Windows Registry
The registry contains registry values (which are instructions), located within registry keys (folders that contain more data), all within one of several registry hives (folders that categorize all the data in the registry using subfolders). Making changes to these values and keys change the configuration that a particular value controls. Making changes to registry values solves a problem, answers a question, or alters a program in some way:
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The registry is constantly referenced by Windows and other programs. When you make changes to nearly any setting, changes are also made to the appropriate areas in the registry, though these changes are sometimes not realized until you reboot the computer. Considering how important the Windows Registry is, backing up the parts of it you’re changing, before you change them, is very important. Registry backup files are saved as REG files. See How to Back up the Windows Registry for help generating manual backups. Additionally, just in case you need it, here’s our How to Restore the Windows Registry tutorial, which explains how to import REG files back into the Registry Editor.
Windows Registry Availability
The Windows Registry and the Microsoft Registry Editor program are available in nearly every Windows version including Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows 98, and Windows 95. The registry has replaced autoexec.bat, config.sys, and nearly all the INI files that contained configuration information in MS-DOS and in very early versions of Windows.
Where Is the Windows Registry Stored?
The SAM, SECURITY, SOFTWARE, SYSTEM, and DEFAULT registry files, among others, are stored in newer versions of Windows (Windows XP through Windows 11) in this System32 folder: Older versions of Windows use the %WINDIR% folder to store registry data as DAT files. Windows 3.11 uses only one registry file for the entire Windows Registry, called REG.DAT. Windows 2000 keeps a backup copy of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE System key that it uses to troubleshoot a problem with the existing one.
