Editing the Windows Registry (continued...)

The Registry Editor
You should probably print this section (Manipulating the Registry) out, prior to working with the Registry.

Before you open the Registry Editor, make sure you have a current backup and have tried, and trust the restore procedure from the DOS prompt. In Windows 95, I would suggest copying the Registry files to another folder. Windows 98 and ME has ScanReg, an excellent utility, but for added protection you could still copy the Registry files.

To start Regedit, just click the Start button, click on 'Run', and type Regedit in the text box. The Editor will start when you click on OK. If you are familiar with Windows Explorer, you will probably have no trouble in the Registry Editor. The interface is very much the same, only you're dealing with Keys and Values instead of Folders and Files.

In the left hand pane, you'll see the six root keys:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
HKEY_CURRENT_USER
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
HKEY_USERS
HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG
HKEY_DYN_DATA

The KEYS are like the folders in Windows Explorer, using the same type of heirarchy. They can contain values or data, more keys(subkeys), or both.

If you see a plus sign (+) beside a key, there's more keys inside. You can click on the plus sign to expand the tree. Go ahead and click on the plus sign beside HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and you'll see the subkeys below.

Now click once on the subkey CONFIG, just to highlight it. In the right hand pane of the Registry Editor you'll see the value associated with that particular key.

eg.
(Default) (value not set)

In other words, it has no value at this time.

So the different keys and their individual subkeys are displayed in the left pane, and the values will be displayed in the right pane.

(continued...)