© MICROSOFTAdvanced Windows
11 tips: Registry Editor
1
START WITH A BACKUP
Before you start making wholesale changes to the Registry,
make sure you have a fallback. It’s technically possible to
bring down your entire Windows installation from a botched
Registry setting, although in most cases, you’ll merely break a
specific part of your system or the application you’re trying to
tweak. While you can undo most Registry edits, it pays to have a
failsafe in place—personal experience says you’ll thank us later.
>> Backups come in various shapes and sizes. If your drive
image tool supports differential or, better still, incremental
backups, then create your failsafe backup here. Macrium Reflect
Free (www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx) supports the former.
>> You can also take a System Restore point, which backs up
the Registry in its current state as well as other system files.
Type ‘system restore’ into the Search panel and click ‘Create a
restore point’. Check System Restore is enabled for your system
drive (click Configure if not) and then click Create to make a
manual restore point. Give it a suitably descriptive name such as
‘Pre-Registry tweaks’ and click Create again [Image A].
>> If you run into problems, either roll back your drive image
or return to the ‘Create a Restore point’ dialog and click System
Restore... to undo your changes. In the unlikely event Windows
won’t boot, wait until it brings up the recovery screen, then
choose Troubleshoot followed by Advanced and System Restore.IF YOU’RE LOOKING TO GET MORE from your Windows 11 setup, you’ve come to the right place.
In this issue, we’ll take a deep dive into your Windows Registry, which has been a vital component
of Windows since the days of Windows 95. Basically, it’s a glorified database stored across
several files (known as ‘hives’) containing various configuration settings that cover all aspects
of your PC: its hardware, the apps you’ve installed, and—of course—Windows itself.
To simplify matters, most Registry changes can be made via other Windows tools such
as Settings or Device Manager, or within an application’s own dialog boxes. However, other
settings are hidden more deeply. Many Windows tweaking tools such as Ultimate Windows
Tweaker (www.thewindowsclub.com) offer an easy way to make meaningful Registry changes
without risk but doing so means you never understand what’s going on beneath the hood.
At some point, you’ll need to access the Registry directly, whether it’s to change an annoying
feature or fix a problem, and that’s where this tutorial comes in. We’ll take you on a crash
course of the Registry—how it works and how to edit it, plus reveal some useful tweaks that can
make your Windows experience that bit better. –NICK PEERSYOU’LL NEED THIS
WINDOWS 11
plus a Registry backup—use
System Restore or a drive
image tool. Optional extra:
third-party Registry editor,
such as O&O Registry Editor.2
ACCESS AND NAVIGATE THE REGISTRY
Windows offers its own built-in tool for accessing
the Registry: Registry Editor (regedit.exe). It
has all the tools you need to view and edit the Registry,
although check the box over the page for a third-party
alternative that makes Registry editing even simpler.
>> The fastest way to access Registry Editor is to press
Win + R, type regedit and press Enter. Administrative
access is required, so click Yes when prompted. You’ll
see a two-paned window appear — the annotation
reveals the key components of regedit’s user interface.
>> Registry Editor stores data as a series of values,
organized into keys and subkeys as revealed in the
Registry 101 box. To navigate, use the left-hand
navigation pane like you would File Explorer: click a key
to select it, or double-click a key to expand it and reveal
any subkeys inside.
>> Select a key or subkey and you’ll see a list of its
associated values appear in the right-hand pane. You can
edit or delete existing values and keys—be careful, as
deleting a key destroys all its values too—or create new
ones from scratch.
>> Given how easy this is to do, let’s explore one final
backup option: Registry Editor itself. Regedit allows you
to export individual keys (and their values) as text-based
.REG files—simply right-click the target key or subkeyBA58 MAXIMU MPC JUN 2022
R&D