Monday, January 25th, 2010

Registry for Microsoft Windows 95

The hierarchical database - Registry - for Windows stores settings and options for configuration on MS Windows operating systems.

The Windows Registry provides information about the settings for low-level operating system and applications running on the platforms. The kernel, user interface, device drivers, services, SAM and third party applications are some platforms which use the Window Registry.

To boost computers performance, the registry also gives a method to use counters.

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 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.

The Registry database includes two basic elements values and keys.

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.

Window 3s 16-bit registry presents the terms, wherein keys included merely a value that is unnamed (which required to be a string), but they couldnt have arbitrary duo of name/data.

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.

However, sloppy registry editing can lead to a slow PC 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 straightforward implementation of the present-day registry tool surfaced in Windows 3.x operating system, dubbed as “Registration Info Editor” or simply “Registration 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.

An integrated program of these two distinct programs was firstly seen in Windows XP. The operating system embraced the REGEDIT.EXE interface and infused the REGEDT32.EXE functionality into it.

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.

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

Linux platform too allows for editing the registry with the assistance of an open source tool called Offline NT Password & Registry Editor.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 25th, 2010 at 7:27 am and is filed under Best Technology Resources, Net Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

---

Comments are closed.

---

---