MODIFYING THE REGISTRY

4. Why should you make most of your configuration changes through either Control

Panel or Administrative Tools rather than by editing the Registry directly with the

Registry Editor?

Lesson Summary

Windows XP Professional stores hardware and software settings in the Registry, a

hierarchical database that replaces many of the .ini, .sys, and .com configuration

files used in earlier versions of Windows. The Registry provides the appropriate

initialization information to boot Windows XP Professional, to start applications,

and to load components such as device drivers and network protocols.

The Registry structure provides a secure set of records that can be read,

updated, or modified by many of the Windows XP Professional components.

The Registry has two subtrees: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and HKEY_USERS.

However, additional parts of the Registry (including HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT,

HKEY_CURRENT_USER, and HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG) are represented in the

top level of the visible structure in Registry Editor to make important areas easier

to locate.

The Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE) allows you to view and change the Registry.

The Registry Editor is primarily intended for troubleshooting. For most configura-

tion changes, you should use either Control Panel or Administrative Tools, not

Registry Editor.