How to Backup Registry in Windows 10. The Windows Registry is a hierarchical database that stores low-level settings for the Microsoft Windows operating system and for applications that opt to use the registry. The kernel, device drivers, services, Security Accounts Manager, and user interface can all use the registry. The registry also allows access to counters for profiling system performance.
Back up the registry manually
From the Start menu, type regedit.exe in the search box, and then press Enter. If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
In Registry Editor, locate and click the registry key or subkey that you want to back up.
Click File ➡ Export.
In the Export Registry File dialog box, select the location to which you want to save the backup copy, and then type a name for the backup file in the File name field.
Click Save.
Create a restore point
From the Start menu, type creates a restore point.
Select Create a restore point from the search results.
Choose Create, and then follow the steps to create a restore point.
Restore a manual back up
From the Start menu, type regedit.exe, and then press Enter. If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
In Registry Editor, click File ➡ Import.
In the Import Registry File dialog box, select the location to which you saved the backup copy, select the backup file, and then click Open.
Restore from a restore point
From Start, type creates a restore point.
Select Create a restore point from the search results.
Choose System Restore.
In simple terms, the registry or Windows Registry contains information, settings, options, and other values for programs and hardware installed on all versions of Microsoft Windows operating systems. For example, when a program is installed, a new subkey containing settings such as a program's location, its version, and how to start the program, are all added to the Windows Registry.
When introduced with Windows 3.1, the Windows Registry primarily stored configuration information for COM-based components. Windows 95 and Windows NT extended its use to rationalize and centralize the information in the profusion of INI files, which held the configurations for individual programs and were stored at various locations. It is not a requirement for Windows applications to use the Windows Registry. For example, .NET Framework applications use XML files for configuration, while portable applications usually keep their configuration files with their executables.
The registry contains important configuration information for the operating system, for installed applications as well as individual settings for each user and application. A careless change to the operating system configuration in the registry could cause irreversible damage, so it is usually only installer programs that perform changes to the registry database during installation/configuration and removal. If a user wants to edit the registry manually, Microsoft recommends that a backup of the registry be performed before the change.[14] When a program is removed from the control panel, it is not completely removed and the user must manually check inside directories such as program files. After this, the user needs to manually remove any reference to the uninstalled program in the registry. This is usually done by using RegEdit.exe.[15] Editing the registry is sometimes necessary when working around Windows-specific issues e.g. problems when logging onto a domain can be resolved by editing the registry.[16]
Windows Registry can be edited manually using programs such as RegEdit.exe, although these tools do not expose some of the registry's metadata such as the last modified date.
The registry editor for the 3.1/95 series of operating systems is RegEdit.exe and for Windows NT it is RegEdt32.exe; the functionalities are merged in Windows XP. Optional and/or third-party tools similar to RegEdit.exe are available for many Windows CE versions.
Registry Editor allows users to perform the following functions:
Creating, manipulating, renaming and deleting registry keys, subkeys, values and value data
Importing and exporting.REG files, exporting data in the binary hive format
Loading, manipulating and unloading registry hive format files (Windows NT systems only)
Setting permissions based on ACLs (Windows NT systems only)
Bookmarking user-selected registry keys as Favorites
Finding particular strings in key names, value names and value data
Remotely editing the registry on another networked computer