Win Registry

Starting with Windows 95, the Registry is a database that holds configuration data about the hardware and environment of the PC. It is made up of the SYSTEM.DAT and USER.DAT files.

The Registry can be edited directly, but that is usually only done for very technical enhancements or as a last resort. Routine access is done via the Windows control panels through the Properties option. Right clicking on almost every icon in Windows brings you the option of selecting Properties. See Win Properties.

Registry Details
To get into the Registry itself, run the Registry Editor program (REGEDIT.EXE) from the Run command in the Start menu. The Registry contains five folders. In Windows 95/98, there is a sixth folder.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
Contains file associations and OLE information. It shows exactly the same thing as the folder HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER
The portion of HKEY_USERS that pertains to the current user. It contains the colors, fonts and attributes for the desktop environment as well as any network connections. If the current user is the only user of the system, HKEY_CURRENT_USER and HKEY_USERS are the same.

HKEY_USERS
Contains the above information for all users of the system. It is the USER.DAT file.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Holds a large number of settings for the hardware, system software and applications. Install programs also create folders within this folder and place information in them, similar to the INI files that were introduced in Windows 3.1.

HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIGURATION
Contains settings for the current display resolution and printers.

HKEY_DYN_DATA
Holds performance statistics which can be viewed in Windows 95/98 with System Monitor (SYSMON.EXE).

The HKEYs

The "Handles to the Keys" (HKEYs) are the portals to all the configuration settings in a Windows computer.