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.
To boost computers performance, the registry also gives a method to use counters.
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 was inflated with the launch of Windows 95 and Windows NT so as to organize the surplus of INI files per program, which had been used earlier to amass settings of configuration for Windows programs.
The Windows registry has two essentials: keys and values.
Registry Values refer to the pairs of name/data stored within the keys.
Manipulation of registry values is carried out by the API functions of Windows, which access names of values discretely from their key paths and/or from Windows handle that acknowledges 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”.
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.
Theres provision for manually editing registry in MS Windows by carrying out the execution of regedt32.exe and regedit.exe in Windows directories.
This advantage could have serious consequences e.g. a slow PC if Registry editing is done carelessly. Thus, Microsoft recommends that before editing the Registry, backups should be performed to avoid damages. In fact, many industry experts like editors and authors of leading trade magazines have recommended this.
Windows 3.x, also known as the “Registration Info Editor” or “Registration Editor”, demonstrated the implementation of current Registry tools.
It was mainly only an applications database that facilitates editing embedded OLE objects.
But the users need to be cautious as the two editors on the aforementioned platforms differ tremendously.
An integrated program of these two distinct programs was firstly seen in Windows XP. The operating system embraced the REGEDIT.EXE interface and infused the REGEDT32.EXE functionality into it.
These editors do not show such differences on Windows XP and newer systems. For instance - REGEDIT.EXE is the more refined and sophisticated editor, while REGEDT32.EXE is only a stub that invokes REGEDIT.EXE.
The Registry Editor enables users to do the following functions easily:
- Importing and exporting .REG files, exporting data in the binary hive format
- Creating, manipulating, renaming and deleting registry keys, subkeys, values and value data
- Setting permissions based on ACLs (Windows NT-based systems only)
- Loading, manipulating and unloading registry hive format files (Windows NT-based systems only)
- 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.