Registry for Microsoft Windows 98
Windows Registry is the database used to store configurations, settings and options for Microsoft Windows systems. The database has a hierarchical structure.
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.
The Windows Registry was first launched in the market with Windows 3.1 to store important configuration information for COM-based components.
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.
Keys and values are the two basic components of the MS registry.
Stored inside the keys are the pairs of name/data known as registry values.
The Windows API functions, which query and maneuver registry values, obtain the names of values distinctly from the key path and/or from the handle that recognizes the parent key.
The terminology seems to be misleading because the values resemble to an associative array. This associative array uses standard terminology for referring the name part of the value as a key.
These terms are an archive from 16-bit registry in Windows
The Windows registry can be edited in a manual way in MS Windows by executing regedt32.exe or regedit.exe in the directory of Windows.
Although, neglectfully editing the registry can result in irreparable damage or you end up with a slow Windows 7. Therefore, Microsoft and several industry experts, including the writers and editors of leading trade magazines, have highly recommended to perform backups of the registry prior to editing it.
A straightforward implementation of the present-day registry tool surfaced in Windows 3.x operating system, dubbed as “Registration Info Editor” or simply “Registration Editor”.
This was a database of applications primarily used to edit inserted OLE objects in documents.
Here is the test of alertness as there are a lot of distinctions between the two editors available on these operating systems.
Microsoft Windows XP was the first system in which both the programs were integrated into one. This integrated program contained the interface of REGEDIT.EXE and the functionality of REGEDT32.EXE.
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.
Following functions can be performed using the Registry Editor:
- 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.
