How to open the registry. Creating and deleting sections and parameters via a file with the reg extension

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Good day.

System registry- it is in it that Windows stores all data about the settings and parameters of the system as a whole, and individual programs in particular.

And, quite often, in case of errors, failures, virus attacks, fine tuning and Windows optimization you have to go into this very system registry. In my articles, I myself repeatedly write about changing some parameter in the registry, deleting a branch or something else. (now you can link to this article :)) …

In this reference article, I want to give a few simple ways, how to open the registry editor in Windows operating systems: 7, 8, 10. So...

1. How to enter the registry: several ways

1.1. Via the “Run” window / “Open” line

The good thing about this method is that it always works almost flawlessly (even if there are problems with the explorer, if the START menu does not work, etc.).

In Windows 7, 8, 10, to open the “Run” line, just press the button combination Win+R (Win is a button on the keyboard with an icon like this icon :) .

Note! By the way, I would like to recommend you an article with a list of commands for the Run window. The article lists several dozen of the most the necessary commands(when restoring and configuring Windows, fine tuning and PC optimization) -

1.2. Via the search bar: launch the registry as administrator

First, open a regular explorer (well, for example, just open any folder on any drive :)) .

1) In the menu on the left (see Fig. 3 below) select system HDD, on which you have Windows installed - it is usually marked special. icon: .

By the way, in Fig. 4 shows how to run the editor as an administrator (to do this, click right click click on the found link and select the appropriate item in the menu).

1.3. Create a shortcut to launch Registry Editor

Why look for a shortcut to launch when you can create it yourself?!

To create a shortcut, right-click anywhere on the desktop and select from the context menu: “Create/Shortcut" (as in Fig. 5).

By the way, the shortcut itself, after creation, will not become faceless, but with the registry editor icon - i.e. it is clear what will be opened after clicking on it (see Fig. 8)…

Rice. 8. Shortcut to launch Registry Editor

2. How to open the Registry Editor if it is locked

In some cases, it is not possible to enter the system registry (By at least, using the methods described above :)) . For example, this may happen if you are exposed to viral infection and the virus managed to block the registry editor...

What to do in this case?

I recommend using AVZ utility: it can not only check your computer for viruses, but also restore Windows: for example, unlock the system registry, restore Explorer and browser settings, clean Hosts file and many more.

To restore and unlock the registry, after starting the program, open the menu file/system restore (as in Fig. 9).

Rice. 9. AVZ: Menu File/System Restore

Rice. 10. Unlock the system registry

In most cases, such a recovery allows you to enter the registry in the usual way(described in the first part of the article).

Note! You can also open the registry editor in AVZ by going to the menu: service/system utilities/Regedit - registry editor .

If the above does not help you , I recommend that you read the article about restoring Windows OS -

3. How to create a branch and parameter in the registry

When they tell you to open the registry and go to such and such a branch... this simply confuses many (we are talking about novice users). A branch is an address, a path that you need to go through the folders ( green arrow in Fig. 9).

Example registry branch: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\exefile\shell\open\command

The parameter is those settings that are in the branches. To create a parameter, simply go to the desired folder, then right-click and create a parameter with the settings you want.

By the way, the parameters can be different (pay attention to this when you create or edit them): string, binary, DWORD, QWORD, Multistring, etc.

Rice. 9 Branch and parameter

Main sections in the registry:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT – data about those registered in Windows types files;
HKEY_CURRENT_USER – settings of the user logged into Windows;
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE – settings related to PC, laptop;
HKEY_USERS – settings for all users registered in Windows;
HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG – data about equipment settings.

This concludes my mini-instruction. Good luck!

Today I would like to tell how to open the registry in windows 7 or windows xp. Each user sooner or later comes to a problem slow work computer. One of these reasons is hidden in the registry of your computer, and to correct the situation you should clean it.

If you don’t know how to do this, then read the article on how to clean the registry. To find out how to open it, read the full article.

Registry - This is a huge database in which all computer settings are stored. It indicates which programs are installed, as well as which devices are connected. The registry is used in cases where a virus banner appears, as well as in cases of system failure due to the installation of virus software.

I want to warn you in advance that if you are very poorly versed in registry branches, then you should not perform any actions yourself. Either do as described in the article, or do nothing at all. At your leisure, you can also read how to check your video card. So, let's begin? Let's first look at the option of opening the registry in Windows 7.

How to open the registry in windows 7

To begin, go to the Start menu, and then select the Run section.

Or you can simply press the Win+R key combination and a window will open for you command line, where you can write the command you need.

In our case, this is the regedit command. Did you enter the command? Now feel free to click OK and then a registry editor window will open in front of you.

Ready? Well done! In Windows 7 I see you are already succeeding open the registry. Let's now move on to other methods and on another operating system.

HOW TO OPEN THE REGISTRY IN WINDOWS XP

To open the registry we need to press the key combination Ctrl+Alt+Delete. After that, go to the task manager and in the window that opens, go to the File tab in the left corner > New task.

And in a new window, enter our command to call the registry regedit. Lastly, I wanted to ask you something. If this article helped you, then please help me too. Subscribe to blog updates, and in return I will send you various information on setting up your computer by email.

I will end here. I see what you found out how to open the registry in Windows 7 and xp, and I also think you read how to clean it. If you haven’t read it, the link to the article is located a little higher.

Still have questions? - We will answer them for FREE

In Windows operating systems there is such a tool as the system registry. It is used to store settings operating system And installed programs. In the registry, all settings are stored as keys. In order to change a particular key, you need to open the Windows registry using the Registry Editor. In this article we will talk about how to open the registry in various ways.

The fastest and easiest way to open the registry is to use the Run menu. Press the Windows key combination + R, after the “Run” window appears in front of you, enter the command “regedit” and click on the “OK” button.

This is enough for the Registry Editor window to open in front of you.

Opening the registry using search

You can also open the registry using program search. Open the Start menu and type "regedit" into the search bar at the bottom of the menu.

After the regedit.exe program is found, click on it with the mouse or simply press the Enter key.

If you are using Windows 8 and you don’t have the good old one, then you need to click on Windows key and after the start screen with tiles appears, enter the “regedit” command.

After this, the operating system will search for the program and will offer to open the “regedit” program, click on it and you will open the Windows registry.

Create a shortcut to open the registry

We can also open the Windows registry using a pre-created shortcut. To do this, open context menu on the desktop (right click with the mouse) and select “ ”.

After this, a window for creating shortcuts will open. In it you need to enter the command “regedit” and click on the “Next” button.

After this, another window will appear in which you need to enter the name of the shortcut and click on the “Finish” button. As a result, a shortcut for .

Open the registry editor directly

If none of the options described above suits you, then you can launch the Registry Editor manually. To do this you need to open Windows folder on system disk and find the regedit.exe program there, this is the Registry Reactor.

When you open the regedit.exe file, you will see exactly the same window as in the previous cases described.

Presented on the Internet great amount information covering topics such as optimization, configuration, patching Windows errors. Often in them, in addition to simple actions, provides information about changing parameters and keys system registry. However, how to open the Registry Editor Windows 7 not always written. This article fully covers this topic.

Registry Editor

The registry is the OS database. It contains information about users, equipment, and software. Also, the registry stores absolutely all operating system settings and installed applications. The registry structure is hierarchical, that is, multi-level. It can be used to enable some hidden possibilities Windows.

Before giving instructions,how to open Windows 7, it is worth saying that it backups are created once every ten days. In addition, you can create a backup inside the registry editor itself.

The database in question first appeared in 1992 in Windows 3.1. By modern standards, it took up very little space on the hard drive. Despite this, general structure The registry has hardly evolved.

The easiest way

This the method will work for any Windows versions, not only for the seventh. Click on the button that opens the Start menu.

It is located on the left side of the control panel. Type regedit into the search bar. After a few seconds, the required shortcut will appear at the top of the menu. After clicking on it, the registry editor will open.

The most popular way

This method is suitable even if the computer is attacked by viruses, and the desktop and the bottom panel gone.How to open Registry Editor in Windows 7?

Press Win + R. This will expand the Run dialog. You can also expand it by selecting the appropriate link in the Start menu.
In the input line, paste the text regedit.
Click the "OK" button.

Conductor

How to open the editor Windows registry 7 using the built-in file manager?

Double-click on the "Computer" icon.
In the window that opens, copy to address bar next text C:\Windows\regedit.exe, then press the "Enter" button.
When asked by the operating system about granting administrator rights to the utility, answer in the affirmative.

You can follow the path manually, but this approach will not allow you to complete the task quickly. You do not need to use Explorer to follow these instructions. Absolutely any file manager will do.

Label

If you often change settings in the Registry Editor, it makes sense to create a shortcut for it on your desktop. After this, you just need to double-click on the icon to

Expand by right-clicking on free space on the screen.
In the menu that opens, move the cursor to the “Create” inscription, and then click on the “Shortcut” inscription.
In the “Object” line of the dialog that opens, enter regedit and click “Next”.
Now set the name that will be written under the new icon. You can enter any desired text here.
To launch the configuration utility, simply double-click on the shortcut and then answer yes to the OS question.

be careful

Before opening the Windows 7 Registry Editor,Study all possible information about what editing specific parameters in it will lead to. Some changes take effect immediately, while others require a reboot. After carelessly editing the settings, the operating system may begin to crash or may not boot at all. Of course, modern operating systems have means of restoring their performance, but they do not always help in case of serious problems. In addition, it is unlikely that anyone will be pleased to waste time if, after making changes to Windows settings or its components will stop running.

For operating room work Windows systems must be used various information. The registry is a special database. It contains information regarding equipment, software, as well as much more. During the operation of the system, this information is constantly accessed. It may be changed or supplemented, depending on specific actions. Similar events take place in automatically and the user does not need to worry about executing them.

IMPORTANT: If you decide to work with the Windows registry, then first create a copy of it. Careless actions can easily cause serious system failures. As a result, you will have to restore the OS or even reinstall it.

Registry in operating systems

To demonstrate the importance of the registry, we need to talk about some simple statistics. During the launch of the OS, about a thousand calls are made here, and within one day the number can reach 10,000 or even more. It is enough to launch a program, set settings or perform other actions for the information in the registry to be edited.

Where is the registry stored?

Quite often you can hear the question about the location of files. The Windows registry is located in the C\Windows\System32\config directory. Here C is indicated as the drive, but for your device the situation may be different. It all depends on where exactly the system is installed.

If we consider the most popular OS Windows 7, then the registry files are located in special places. This moment requires special attention:

« HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE" The specified branch will be created based on which peripheral equipment is connected. The process is dynamic.
« HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\BCD00000000» uses for its creation special file"%SystemRoot%\Boot\BCD".
« HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM" To create the specified branch, the document “%SystemRoot%\System32\config\SYSTEM” is used.
« HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE" Creation occurs based on the document “%SystemRoot%\System32\config\SOFTWARE”.
« HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SECURITY" The branch stores device security settings and is created from the document “%SystemRoot%\System32\config\SECURITY”.
« HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SAM" For creation, information from the document located at “%SystemRoot%\System32\config\SAM” is used.
« HKEY_USERS\DEFAULT" The registry branch is created using the document “%SystemRoot%\System32\config\DEFAULT”.
Registry branches " HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-18», « HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-19" And " HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-20" To create them, the document NTUSER.DAT is used, which is located in various directories. These are "%SystemRoot%\System32\config\systemprofile\", "%SystemRoot%\System32\config\systemprofile\" and "%SystemRoot%\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\".
« HKEY_USERS\ " For the purpose of formation, the document “%USERPROFILE%\NTUSER.DAT” is used.
« HKEY_USERS\ _Classes" In this case, the formation is carried out while using the document “%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\UsrClass.dat”.

The registry has separate files, which deserve attention are backups. They are necessary in case of system recovery. These documents are located in the directory “%SystemRoot%\System32\config\RegBack”. If we consider the default situation, a copy will be created once every 10 days. You can configure a similar process - frequency and start time. The user part of the registry is located in the document %userprofile%\ntuser.dat.

When it comes to the registry of 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems, there are certain features. In the first case, all folders are single. For 64 bits, division into 32 and, directly, 64 bit sections is provided.

How to open the registry?

To gain access, you can use several methods and you need to consider the most popular among them.

Through the Run utility

This option can be called the most attractive, since it combines simplicity and convenience. You must act in accordance with the recommendations:

Press the Win+R key combination or launch the Run utility in another way.
Enter regedit and click confirm. It is extremely important that such an action is carried out on behalf of the administrator.

By searching through the Start menu

There may be certain differences when working with different operating systems. For example, not available for Windows 8 classic menu"Start". In any case, you need to access the search bar. You need to enter regedit into it and run the given program.

Through Windows Explorer

The task is to find specific file in the system folder C\Windows (previously we talked about the possibility of using a different drive letter, depending on where the OS is installed). We are interested in regedit. You need to find it in the general list and run it.

Registry structure

The Windows registry includes 5 branches. Each of them provides for storing information of a specific type. These sections may not be modified. They cannot be moved, renamed or deleted. It is required to describe each of the branches and indicate their features:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT (HKCR). Data about numerous extensions is stored here, which allows the system to work with files various types. If you don't have any information, you can always add additional changes to expand opportunities.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER (HKCU). This thread contains information about account. This may include various settings and personalization elements.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE (HKLM). All data about connected devices and drivers is located here. Most importantly, there is information related to loading the OS.
HKEY_USERS (HKU). Here is information about full list users for a specific device.
HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG (HKCC). Provides information about the hardware that the device uses during OS startup. As practice shows, there is little information here and almost all of it is a copy from other sections.

When working with the Windows registry, HKEY_CURRENT_USER and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE are of interest. Here are most of the settings that need to be changed.

It is necessary to pay attention to such a component as parameters. They allow you to make changes to various aspects system operation. There are several types of parameters:

Binary. It is most widely used and is used in all sections. When issued in the registry editor, the 16x format is used.
Dword. A value with a length of 4 bytes is used. Necessary for storing parameters of drivers and various programs.
Expandable data string. The main difference from the string parameter is that the length is not clearly fixed.
Multiline. More than one line is used. Quite often used when it is necessary to store tabular data.
String. A string of text that has a fixed length.
Qword. The information is specified as a 64-bit integer.
Link. A symbolic link in Unicode format is used.

Backup of the entire registry or a specific section

We have already talked about the dangers of working with the registry. There is always a possibility of causing harm to the system and you need to take care of creating a copy in advance. You should enter the Windows Registry Editor and open the “File” section. In the list that appears, select the “Export” item. Now you can create a copy of the entire registry or a specific subsection. For convenience, the process is demonstrated in the screenshot below.

In order to increase reliability, it is possible to save a copy not only on the device’s hard drive, but on external media.

Registry recovery

So, the worst happened and the system crashed. What needs to be done in such a situation? It is worth considering three recovery methods, each of which has its own characteristics. In any situation, you must first shut down all programs and applications. It will not be superfluous to disable antivirus tools.

Recovering from a file

Let's move on to the document that was previously saved. There should be a copy of the entire Windows registry. You need to double click and then confirm the received message. It is shown in the screenshot below.

Some time will be required for recovery, and the process itself will be completed after the device is rebooted.

Merger

You need to open the folder with the copy and right-click on it. A menu will appear in which you need to specify “Merge”. For your convenience, this action is presented in the screenshot.

As in the previous case, the recovery will be completed after a reboot.

Import

Necessary open registryWindows. How to do it has been discussed previously and several approaches have been presented. In the editor itself, we are interested in the “File” menu. There you should select “Import”. You will be prompted to specify the path to the saved copy.

Separately, it is necessary to consider an option that involves restoring the entire system. This involves the use of built-in tools. It is important to make backups yourself or not disable backups.

Recovery using live CD

In some situations, loading the operating system may not be possible. This is the most difficult option and to solve this problem it is recommended to use special way. It consists of loading via a live CD. When this is done, you need to proceed further - visit the root of the disk where Windows is installed. The following instructions are provided:

Create a temporary folder on the system disk. It needs to be named tmp. This is where the defective registry files will be located.
Now we log into the folder C:\WINDOWS\system32\config
All files found here should be moved to the previously created temporary folder C:\tmp\
We go to the recovery folder, which is located in the C:\System Volume Information\ directory. It should contain a number of folders of the following type - _restore(long character code with hyphens). Checking the creation date similar folders and find the latest one in the list.
Inside there will be folders named RP1, RP2 and so on. We are again interested in the very last one. It is important to familiarize yourself with the date and clarify whether the OS was running in specified time stable. If not, select the last working save.
Go to the Snapshot\ folder. This is where backup copies of the registry files are located.
Required to use _REGISTRY_USER_DEFAULT, _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY, _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE, _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM and _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SAM
The files specified in the previous paragraph are copied and they replace similar registry files in the C:\WINDOWS\system32\config directory. It is required to change the name to DEFAULT, SECURITY, SOFTWARE, SYSTEM and SAM
In order for the changes to take effect, you must reboot.

Cleaning the registry

You may often be faced with a request to how to clean the registry onWindows (Windows). Here you can use specialized software or a manual method. In the first case, we can recommend enough a large number of applications. The most popular include Reg Organizer, CCleaner and Windows Cleaner. These programs have proven themselves to be excellent - their capabilities for optimizing system operation are at a very high level.

Manually cleaning the Windows registry is more suitable for experienced users who know what they are doing. It is recommended to first copy the files in order to restore in case of failure.

The cleaning process itself requires removing any information about an already deleted program. Similar data is contained in “HKEY_CURRENT_USER” and this is where our path lies. In the Software subsection you need to find the required folder. The screenshot below shows an example for the Skype program.

Creating and deleting sections and parameters via a file with the reg extension

All reg files have a strictly established syntax that must be strictly observed. This is a feature of documents of this type. REG files can be used as a means to create or delete subsections, as well as parameters.

Creating subsections or changing parameters

Accessing the registry editor
Select the subsection for which changes must be made
Click on the “File” tab, where you need to click “Export”
In the “File name” field, enter the name of the document to save the REG file with the original registry elements and click the “Save” button

Removing registry keys or settings

To complete this task, you need to place a hyphen in front of the registry path. This should be considered at simple example. We have:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software

You must remove the Program section from it. It will look like this:

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Program]

Deleting a value has a similar method. IN in this case, the hyphen must be placed immediately before the equals sign. Let's expand the previous example - now we need to remove the ProgramValue parameter. This is done as follows:

"ProgramValue"=-

You can make changes through a regular notepad program. Don't forget to make copies first.