Registry is the name of Windows hierarchical database, that Windows uses to store options and configurations for a Microsoft Operating System.
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.
The Windows Registry also enables to access counter which helps in analyzing the performance of system.
The Windows Registry was first launched in the market with Windows 3.1 to store important configuration information for COM-based components.
But the use of Windows Registry extended with the launch of Windows NT and Windows 95. It included a large number of per-program INI files wherein configuration settings for Windows had been stored.
The Registry database includes two basic elements values and keys.
Registry Values refer to the pairs of name/data stored within the keys.
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
Theres provision for manually editing registry in MS Windows by carrying out the execution of regedt32.exe and regedit.exe in Windows directories.
However, sloppy registry editing can lead to a slow Windows 7 or losses that cant be reversed. So, performing registry backups must be the priority, and the same has been advised by the software giant Microsoft and various other professionals, authors and editors of business magazines.
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.
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.
With REGEDIT.EXE being the enhanced editor and the other one, i.e. REGEDT32.EXE, invoking the former one, there doesnt seem any difference on the newer operating systems including Windows XP.
The Registry Editor permits users to carry out functions that follow:
- Importing and exporting .REG files, exporting data in the binary hive format
- Creating, manipulating, renaming and deleting registry keys, subkeys, values and value data
- Finding particular strings in key names, value names and value data
- Bookmarking user-selected registry keys as Favorites
Linux platform too allows for editing the registry with the assistance of an open source tool called Offline NT Password & Registry Editor.