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The Windows registry

For all the people using Windows,it is very helpful to learn about one of the most important aspects of any windows system,the windows Registry.The registry in windows is a central database of all configuration settings for most of the application installed on your computer.It is used extensively by Windows for storing all its setting and by most Windows  application.The Windows registry allow one to configure many settings for windows and other application which are otherwise not accessibly by any  interface that the application provides.

By Understanding a few things about the windows registry you can go for long way towards hacking your system into what you want it to be.Editing the windows registry is one of the most Powerful ways of manipulating yous ystem settings,which is something that makes it equally dangerous.

So before you set out to do anything with the registry,please back up your system registry.If you are using the system Restore/System protection feature in windows create a recovery Point.

Even so,there are many tools out there which  will help you accomplis some advanced registry manipulations without needing to edit it manually.

To edit the Windows registry,the simplest tool to use--One which is free and works reasonably well-is the registry editor which comes bundled with Windows:regedit.It can be launched using the RUN dialog(Windows Button +R)by entering the command regedit and hitting[enter]

The Windows regedit in any  recent Os will display the following 5 root key entries:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT

HKEY_CURRENT_USER

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

HKEY_USERS

HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG

All this settings are not stored in a single file,but are instead spread across multiple files in logical

groups called "hives".The combination of data  from these "hives"makes up the windows registry.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

Abbreviated as HKML.According to its description in Microsoft  TechNet:TheHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE sub tree contains information about the local computer system,including hardware and operating system data,such as bus type,system memory, device drivers,and start up control parameters.The software sub key in this key contains the bulk of the system-Wide settings for application installed in windows.The setting in this  section are usually arranged as company/Product/version as those are Microsoft's guidelines.setting for Microsoft's own applications will thus be found in HKLM/software/Microsoft own applications will thus be found in HKLM/software/Microsoft,with settings for windows itself under Windows.

HKEY_USERS

This key contains user configuration Keys for each user.It has one subkey for each user is named after the user's security ID.For explanation of what is combined in the subkeys read on for HKEY_CURRENT_USER.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER

Abbreviated as HKCU.According to its description in Microsoft  Tech Net:The HKEY_CURRENT_USER Sub tree contains the user profile for the user who is currently logged on to the computer.The user profile includes environment variables,personal program groups,desktop  settings, network connections, Printers,and application preferences.The data in the user profile is similar to the data  stored in the Win.ini file in Windows3.x.

The HKEY_CURRENT USER Sub tree does not contain any data .It just stores a pointer to the content of the HKEY_USER\security ID(SID)of current user sub key .Therefore,the content of that  sub key also appear in HKEY_CURRENT_USER,and it can be viewed and changed in either location.This sub tree provides easier access to the data.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT

Abbreviated as HKCR,this part of the registry is for storing file associations and information about application registered for handling different data types.These settings can be overridden by the current user's settings for the same stored in HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Classes.

HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG

It merely links to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\Currentcontrolset\Hardware Profiles\Current and contains information generated at run time.©®