Chapter 2: Using the Registry Editor

Overview

Registry Editor is the tool you use to edit the registry directly. You change the registry every time you log on to the computer, but you do it indirectly through Control Panel or the Run dialog box, which updates the registry's list of programs that you've run recently. With Registry Editor, you affect settings without the help of a user interface. That makes Registry Editor one of the operating system's most powerful and dangerous tools. On one hand, you can customize Microsoft Windows XP in ways that aren't possible through the user interface. On the other hand, nothing is checking the settings you change for sanity.

Every version of Windows since 3.1 has had a registry editor. The editor in Microsoft Windows 95 can search the registry and has a simple to use interface. Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 has an archaic editor that can't search and is more difficult to use than the editor in Windows 95, but it has capabilities unique to a secure operating system, such as the ability to set permissions on keys and edit more advanced data types like REG_MULTI_SZ. Microsoft Windows 2000 provides both editors, requiring you to switch back and forth to use each editor's unique abilities. Now, with Windows XP, you get the best of both editors in a single program (insert applause for the developers here).

Registry Editor in Windows XP is the tool you learn about in this chapter. It's the basis for just about every set of instructions you see in this book. It is also the basis for many solutions you find in Microsoft's Knowledge Base, the solutions that people post to UseNet, and so on. This chapter contains more than just instructions for how to use the editor, though. You'll find useful tidbits of information that come from my own experience using this program, such as how to search better and how to quickly back up settings before changing them, which will hopefully make your experience with the single most powerful tool in Windows XP a great one.