The Windows Registry is a database that stores settings and options for Microsoft Windows operating systems. It contains information and settings for hardware, operating system software, most non-operating system software, and per-user settings. The registry also provides a window into the operation of the kernel, exposing runtime information such as performance counters and currently active hardware.
Everytime you install or uninstall any software or drivers you make changes to the Registry. Often third party software or unsigned drivers may cause different problems: from slow PC performance to impossibility of booting up computer. That is why before performing any software/driver changes it is important to make a registry back up.
The simple way to back up and restore registry is to use System Restore utility. Following articles describe how to use System Restore in:
This article describes the way of backing up and restoring registry using Regedit utility.
To access Regedit you should do the following:
1. Click Start.
2. Choose Run.
3. In the Run window type "regedit" without quotation marks and press Enter.
You'll get the following window:
Steps to back up Registry:
1. In Registry Editor open File menu and choose Export.
2. Choose location and enter name for the registry backup file.
3. Choose the Export Range (All / Selected Branch). If you want to perform full backup choose All option.
4. Click Save button. It will save all your registry into single file.
Steps to restore Registry:
1. In Registry Editor open File menu and choose Import.
2. Navigate to the registry backup file.
3. Click Open button. It will replace all existing information with the values from backup file.
*Note that newly created items in Rregistry which are not present in backup file won't be deleted. Only the entries that exist in backup file will be replaced.
There is more simple way to restore registry. You should simply double click the registry backup file and it will automatically perform adding/replacing registry entries.