January 24, 2010
Registry Database for MS Windows XP
The hierarchical database - Registry - for Windows stores settings and options for configuration on MS Windows operating systems.
The registry contains set-up for components of low-level operating systems and the applications based on that platform. Registry is used by device drivers, the kernels, SAM, user interface, services and all the third party software.
To boost computers performance, the registry also gives a method to use counters.
The Windows Registry was first launched in the market with Windows 3.1 to store important configuration information for COM-based components.
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.
Keys and values are the two basic components of the Registry.
Registry Values refer to the pairs of name/data stored within the keys.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
However, it should be remembered that both the editors have several differences.
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.
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:
- 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.
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