Registry is the name of Windows hierarchical database, that Windows uses to store options and configurations for a Microsoft Operating System.

The Windows Registry provides information about the settings for low-level operating system and applications running on the platforms. The kernel, user interface, device drivers, services, SAM and third party applications are some platforms which use the Window Registry.

The Windows Registry also enables to access counter which helps in analyzing the performance of system.

At the time registry was first coupled with Windows 3.1, its main aim was to store information on configuration of components based on COM.

The use of registry was inflated with the launch of Windows 95 and Windows NT so as to organize the surplus of INI files per program, which had been used earlier to amass settings of configuration for Windows programs.

Keys and values are the two basic components of the Windows registry.

Inside keys, Registry Values are stored and they actually represent name/data pairs.

The Windows API functions, querying and manipulating values of registry, get value names in a different way from the key path. They may also use handle which identify the parent key.

However, the terminology is misguiding to some extent, as values are identical to an associative array, where basic terminology would recognize the values name portion as a “key”.

These terms are an archive from 16-bit registry in Windows

The Windows registry can be edited in a manual way in MS Windows by executing regedt32.exe or regedit.exe in the directory of Windows.

However, sloppy registry editing can lead to a slow XP or losses that cant be reversed. So, performing registry backups must be the priority, and the same has been advised by the software giant Microsoft and various other professionals, authors and editors of business magazines.

A straightforward implementation of the present-day registry tool surfaced in Windows 3.x operating system, dubbed as “Registration Info Editor” or simply “Registration Editor”.

It was mainly only an applications database that facilitates editing embedded OLE objects.

However, it should be remembered that both the editors have several differences.

An integrated program of these two distinct programs was firstly seen in Windows XP. The operating system embraced the REGEDIT.EXE interface and infused the REGEDT32.EXE functionality into it.

With REGEDIT.EXE being the enhanced editor and the other one, i.e. REGEDT32.EXE, invoking the former one, there doesnt seem any difference on the newer operating systems including Windows XP.

The Registry Editor enables users to do the following functions easily:

• Loading, manipulating and unloading registry hive format files (Windows NT-based systems only)
• Setting permissions based on ACLs (Windows NT-based 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

Apart from Microsoft, Registry could also be edited in LINUX with the help of open source Offline NT Password & Registry Editor for files’ editing.