What is the Registry?

The Registry is the central core registrar for Windows NT. Each NT workstation for server has its own Registry, and each one contains info on the hardware and software of the computer it resides on. For example, com port definitions, Ethernet card settings, desktop setting and profiles, and what a particular user can and cannot do are stored in the Registry. Remember those ugly system INI files in Windows 3.1? Well, they are all included with even more fun stuff into one big database called the Registry in NT.

Always make sure that you know what you are doing when changing the registry or else just one little mistake can crash the whole system. That's why it's always good to back it up!


Backup and Restore:
Even with Windows 98, and Windows 95 you can not just backup the registry when you back up files. What you would need to do is run either: regedit32.exe (for NT) or regedit.exe and then click the registry menu, then click export registry. The next step is to click all, then pick the drive to back up onto (usually a removable drive like tape, floppy, cd, zip drive, jazz drive etc.) and then hit "ok". To restore a registry from a backed up version, enter the registry program the same way, click import registry and click the drive and path where the backup is and hit "ok". It will restore it back to the previous backed up settings and may require a reboot.
Note: registry backups are saved as .reg files, and they are associated with regedit as default. This means that once you double-click a .reg file, it's contents will be inserted into your own registry.