Registry Database for MS Windows XP
Windows Registry is the database used to store configurations, settings and options for Microsoft Windows systems. The database has a hierarchical structure.
The entire settings for low-level operating system components along with applications operable on that operating system are contained in the registry. It finds application in the kernels, SAM, device drivers, services, third party applications and user interface.
Windows registry also offers a way to access counters to profile performance of the system.
At the time registry was first coupled with Windows 3.1, its main aim was to store information on configuration of components based on COM.
The use of registry, with the induction of Windows NT and Windows 95, was expanded to include the organization of abundant INI files for each program whose use was previously made for storing settings of configuration for programs on Windows.
The Registry database has two essentials: keys and values.
Stored inside the keys are the pairs of name/data known as registry values.
Manipulation of registry values is carried out by the API functions of Windows, which access names of values discretely from their key paths and/or from Windows handle that acknowledges the parent key.
However, the terminology is misguiding to some extent, as values are identical to an associative array, where basic terminology would recognize the values name portion as a “key”.
The terminologies are a proffer from the 16-bit registry of Windows 3, wherein keys did not possess arbitrary pairs of name/data, but instead had just a single unnamed value that essentially needed to be a string.
The biggest advantage of Registry in Microsoft Windows is that it can be edited manually with the help of regedit.exe or regedt32.exe in the Windows directory.
Although, neglectfully editing the registry can result in irreparable damage or you end up with a slow PC. 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 direct implementation of the current registry tool was seen in Windows 3.x, known as the “Registration Editor” or “Registration Info Editor”.
Typically, it was merely a database of applications that are used to edit OLE objects embedded in documents.
But the users need to be cautious as the two editors on the aforementioned platforms differ tremendously.
For the first time, the two programs were merged into one by Windows XP, which adopted the traditional REGEDIT.EXE as interface and added to it 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:
- Loading, manipulating and unloading registry hive format files (Windows NT-based systems only)
- Setting permissions based on ACLs (Windows NT-based systems only)
- Bookmarking user-selected registry keys as Favorites
- Finding particular strings in key names, value names and value data
- Remotely editing the registry on another networked computer
Registry editing in Linux is also possible by making use of Offline NT Password and Registry Editor for editing files.
