Question

The registry in Windows 8

Answer 1

The Registry is a database of hierarchical information that defines exactly how our operating system works, including virtually every part of Windows and its applications. Editing the Registry database is the best and sometimes the only way to make modifications to the operating system.

The five logical sections of Registry

Registry contains thousands of settings and it is organized into 5 main sections and each of those sections has a different purpose where each section has symbolic links to another section.

Let's see in detail each of these sections:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
This section contains all the information about the type of files, file extensions and similar information. Instructs Windows on how to handle each type of file and the basic controls of user interfaces, such as double click and menus.
This section also includes definition of the unique object classes, such as file types or OLE objects. Frequently the classes associated with the file types contain the subkey of the Shell that defines actions such as opening and printing that are associated with that type of file.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER
This section contains the settings about the settings associated with the user that is logged into Windows, additionally controls the user's desktop as well as the behavior and appearance of the user's system. This section also manages network connections and device connections such as printers. It has all the information about the privileges of the users, their settings and preferences.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
This section contains all the information of the computer as well as the operating system. Includes specific hardware details, including keyboard, printer, ports, storage, etc.

HKEY_USERS
This section contains the information related to each user profile in the system.

HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG
This section contains information about the current configuration of the system hardware.

Accessing the Registry

To run Registry Editor press the Windows + R key . Write regedit and press Enter or click OK .

If this is the first time we open the Registry Editor , it will open preselecting the HKEY_CURRENT_USER section. If we have used it before, it will preselect the last entry that we modified.

We can go through it in the same way we navigate with the Windows file explorer. Clicking on the inverted triangle will display the subdirectories of the main directory.
As each section of the Registry can contain thousands and thousands of subdirectories and these in turn contain subdirectories let's see what are the six types of Registry data:

REG_SZ (character type value)
These values ​​are easy to understand and edit since they are made in plain text and numbers. They are the most common values ​​in the Registry. For example, the value for DoubleClickSpeed , which mentions the speed of our double click with the mouse, is of this type.

REG_MULTI_SZ (multi-character values)
This type of value contains a combination of extensive strings of text and numbers.

REG_EXPAND_SZ (expanded character values)
This type of value contains variables that Windows uses to point the location of the files.

REG_BINARY (binary values)
These types of values ​​are made of binary information: zeros and ones. As a general rule we should not edit binary values ​​instead we edit strings of characters that contain text and numbers, values ​​that we can interpret.

REG_DWORD (DWORD values)
These types of values ​​are represented by a number. Sometimes the zero turns on a key and the one turns it off, although other numbers can be used equally.
Already seen how to access the Registry , known its structure and type of files we just have to walk around it and see what changes we can make to suit our needs.

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