The HKEY LOCAL MACHINESAM Key

The HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SAM Key

The HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SAM registry key contains information on user and group accounts stored in the directory database (which was formerly known as the SAM database) on the local computer. For Windows NT/2000 Server computers, this key also contains security data for the domain that the local computer belongs to.

This key references the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Security\SAM key, and any modification introduced into one of these keys is immediately introduced into the other one.