Launching the Registry editor tool..

My earlier post on Introduction to registry introduces you to the windows registry.Once you know about registry, you would think How it looks like..In this post we will see how to open and  access the registry editor.If you already know how to open registry editor you might started thinking of editing it and start making changes… before you attempt to start editing the registry I would recommend you to first “Getting familiar with windows registry editor interface”. Just to make sure you understand things correctly.

Most of the configuration stored in the registry has GUI interfaces to make changes. When we make changes through the User interface, windows modifies the registry internally. An average computer user need not to change the registry but if you think you are techie then knowing and tweaking registry is one of the thing you would love to do ::D.

One important thing, A text or word or any other type of file is just a file(Collection of data blocks on the hard drive). We use an appropriate program to Open/Edit them. Similerlerly windows registry is also stored in some files which can be opened/edited using one or more program.We will be using the inbuilt registry editor tool for this purpose in this article.

Alright we talked enough on registry,lets see how can we open it.

“Regedit.exe” is a built in program to edit the registry. This executable resides inside windows directory of your OS drive. To access this executable click on “start”  and then click on “Run”. In the run dialog box type regedit.exe and hit OK or press enter. (See below screenshots)

Windows XP user :

 

 

 

 

Windows vista and windows 7 users can type regedit directly in the start menu search box.

 

 

 

 

 

 

* Windows 7 users can be prompted to click on yes according to their User account control settings.Click yes if so.

When you press enter a window will come up like in below image. That’s how the registry looks like.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, Why waiting.. Do so it on your computer and have a look to your own registry editor interface.

Now, Wondering what does all these hierarchy like stuff means ?Go on reading the next post on “getting familer with registry editor interface” which will make you familiar this interface.