Registry knowledge has been essential for system management.But how much do the average users really know about this heart and soul of Windows-based operating system? Since the requirement of preliminary knowledge is suggested whenever you make changes to the registry, you should always check the reference or guides Registry Easy offers, or contact us by Email, we will reply you within 24 hours at the regular working days. Luckily enough, Registry Easy has just decided to build up the knowledge base for registry learning totally free to our certified customers, who can receive related tutorials by Email frequently.
An excerpt of What is the Registry? published on blog.registryeasy.com
What is registry really? The registry is the heart and soul of windows-based operating systems, available in the earlier Windows 95,98,ME,NT/2000,2003 and XP, and the later star Vista of Microsoft. That is, the registry is key of importance for windows-based users, though you don't even notice a bit while you're editing a document, socializing on Facebook or podcasting on Youtube for it's just actually a big collection of settings physically living on your storage device(usually the hard disk).The settings in the registry determine how your system appears and how it behaves. They even control applications running on your computer. This gives the registry great potential as a tool for power users or IT professionals,enabling them to customize settings that aren't available in the user interface (wondering you should have try the popular customizing software WindowBlinds).The registry is also a hierarchical database (or called centralized repository) that contains the configuration data that makes the operating system work, including information and settings for all the hardware, software, users and preferences of your PC system. Developers can use the registry to organize configuration data in ways that are impossible with other mechanisms, such as INI files.
Every application that runs on Microsoft' s latest desktop operating system do absolutely nothing without referencing the registry first. When you double?click a file, the system will ask the registry to figure out what to do with it. When you install a device, the system assigns resources to the device based on information in the registry and then stores the device' s configuration in the registry. Whenever you launch an application(such as Registry Easy ), the application will look up your preferences in the registry like a dictionary. If you were to monitor the registry during a normal session, you' d see the registry serves up thousands of values within minutes.
Whenever you make changes to have cool features or do any other customization for your PC system (e.g. Windows XP) in the way you can' t handle through the user-friendly interface, the registry offers a great mechanism for you BUT IN THE HARDWAY: by default,you have to use the commonly known as "Registry Editor" edit the physical files that make up the registry are stored differently depending on your version of Windows; under Windows 95 & 98 it is contained in two hidden files in your Windows directory.
When it were the era of IBM, MS-DOS was developed by Seattle Computer Products for its 8086-based computer system, and quite popular in the command-line era. MS-DOS depended on Config.sys and Autoexec.bat. The primary purpose of Config.sys was to load device drivers, and Autoexec.bat was to prepare MS?DOS for use by running programs, setting environment variables, and so on. Every application that ran on MS?DOS was responsible for managing its own settings.
Neither of these configuration files is useful in the latest MS Windows system. Microsoft Windows 3.0 alleviated the limitations of Autoexec.bat and Config.sys a bit by providing INI files for storing settings. INI files are text files that contain one or more sections with one or more settings in each section. You' ve undoubtedly seen plenty of them. The problem with INI files is that they provide no hierarchy, storing binary values in them is cumbersome (although not impossible), and they provide no standard for storing similar types of settings. INI files have other subtle problems, all related to the configuration file' s inability to build complex relationships between applications and the operating system. A bigger problem with INI files and early versions of Windows was the sheer number of them that floated around the average computer. Every application had its own INI files. Windows 3.1 introduced the registry as a tool for storing OLE (object linking and embedding) settings, and Windows 95 and Windows NT 3.5 expanded the registry to the configuration database that Windows XP uses now. Even though INI files are no longer necessary because applications now have a far better way to store settings, you' ll always find a handful on any computer, including Win.ini.
A few years ago, people were more interested in the history of the registry than they are now. The registry has been around since before 1995, and everyone pretty much takes it for granted these days, so I won't waste any more book pages on its lineage. The history lesson is over; now you' re living in the present.
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