Which Is The Registry File?

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Just by way of interest:

Which exactly is the registry file on a Windows XP computer?

Is there any application other than Windows built-in RegEdit that will
enable opening a saved/copied registry file of another machine?

Just an idle thought, nothing specific.

Regards and thanks.

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Hi Avatar,

Description of the Microsoft Windows registry
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/256986/

System Restore is the built-in tool for restoring the registry along
with system files.
Here is a description of System Restore:
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/description.html

Export and import within Regedit is *not* a good method of backing up
the entire registry. Its value is where you are going to modify a small
section - export that section, then if needed delete it and re-import to
put things back.
First the backups are text mode, largely in Unicode and are enormous.
Second there is no proper way to restore it. Import does not replace
the current registry but merges the file into it causing the registry to
be come severely bloated. Thus unwanted additions made since the export
are not removed - which is very often what you want to do.
And third when you want to use it may not be practicable, particularly
if the system will not boot.
ERUNT is an excellent tool for backing up the registry ONLY. Erunt also
allows the registry to be restore when Windows will not boot.
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/
 
Bert Kinney said:
Hi Avatar,

Description of the Microsoft Windows registry
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/256986/

System Restore is the built-in tool for restoring the registry along with
system files.
Here is a description of System Restore:
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/description.html

Export and import within Regedit is *not* a good method of backing up the
entire registry. Its value is where you are going to modify a small
section - export that section, then if needed delete it and re-import to
put things back.
First the backups are text mode, largely in Unicode and are enormous.
Second there is no proper way to restore it. Import does not replace the
current registry but merges the file into it causing the registry to be
come severely bloated. Thus unwanted additions made since the export are
not removed - which is very often what you want to do.
And third when you want to use it may not be practicable, particularly if
the system will not boot.
ERUNT is an excellent tool for backing up the registry ONLY. Erunt also
allows the registry to be restore when Windows will not boot.
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/
--
Regards,
Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User
http://bertk.mvps.org
Member: http://dts-l.org
Click to expand...


Thanks for the response, Bert. Very useful info there!

I actually have System Restore tuned off on the three machines I work on. I
use Acronis to create full system drive back-ups about twice a week to
internal secondary hard drives. Also to external drives, but about twice a
month.

I found I already have ERUNT downloaded to my utility library some time ago
(I have quite a handful)! I will install it and try it out maybe this
weekend.

Regards.

Avatar
 
Avatar said:
Just by way of interest:

Which exactly is the registry file on a Windows XP computer?
Click to expand...



The WinXP registry can be found in C:\Windows\System32\Config\.
It'll be divided into several data files, such as Security, Software,
and System. The user-specific portion of the registry is stored in each
user profile, in a file named NTUser.dat.

Is there any application other than Windows built-in RegEdit that will
enable opening a saved/copied registry file of another machine?
Click to expand...

Unknown



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