ARTICLES
More Articles...
|
Windows Registry
In computing, the registry is an internal database which stores information regarding options and settings for Microsoft Windows operating systems. It contains all information regarding Hardware, Operating System, Application Software, and User Preferences and so on. Whenever you make changes to the Control Panel, File Associations, System Policies, or install or remove programs, the registry is updated.
The Windows registry was introduced, to ensure consistency and efficient tracking of configuration settings. Before the Registry was introduced, the configuration settings were scattered all over the system in ini files.
Registry structure
The Registry is divided into several logical sections. These are generally known after the names of the definitions used to access them using the Windows Application Programming Interface (API). The keys begin with HKEY, which is a contraction of Handle to Key.
These keys are divided in to subkeys, which may further be divided into subkeys, giving a Registry a hierarchical structure. Any of these keys may contain values. These values can be of the following types:
f{ String Value
f{ Binary Value (0 or 1)
f{ DWORD Value, a 32 bit unsigned integer (numbers between 0 and 4,294,967,295 [232 V 1])
f{ Multi-String Value
f{ Expandable String Value
The Registry keys are specified using syntax similar to windows directory path, that is, it uses the backslash character to denote different levels of hierarchy. For example: E.g. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\RASE\Desktop_Counter refers to the subkey "Desktop_counter" of the subkey "RASE" of the subkey "Software" of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE key.
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
Abbreviated HKCR, this key is used to store information regarding the registered applications, including associations from file extensions and OLE object class ids to the applications used to handle these items.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Abbreviated HKCU, this key is used to store settings that are specific to the currently logged in user. HKCU mirrors the current user's subkey of HKEY_USERS.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Abbreviated HKLM, this key is used to store settings that are general to all users on the computer. This key is found within the file %SystemRoot%\System32\Config\system on NT-based versions of Windows. Information about system hardware is located under the SYSTEM key.
HKEY_USERS
Abbreviated HKU, this key contains subkeys corresponding to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER keys for each user registered on the machine.
HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG
Abbreviated HKCC, this key contains information gathered at runtime; information stored in this key is not permanently stored on disk, but rather regenerated at boot time.
Cleaning your Registry
It is essential that the Registry is clean, and concise. As the OS refers to the Windows Registry very often, a clean registry ensures that it locates the information quickly. Huge long-winded registries make your computer to work slowly, as it waits on the registry to supply the information it is looking for. This effect becomes more and more pronounced as applications and users are added to the computer.
There are several utility programs that can be used to analyze and clean the Registry.
You can use programs such as regedit.exe to manually clean your registry. You must however be careful, and take a back-up of the registry before you attempt to clean it manually.
On NT-based systems you can use the command line and invoke the reg.exe file.
You can use programs and scripts that invoke the Advanced Windows 32 Base API Library (advapi32.dll).
|
