| Detailed
Information
Editing/Backing
up/Restore Points - Windows Registry
It is wise to back up your
Windows system registry for recovery of important system configuration
settings in the event you have a meltdown. If you make edits to your
registry you especially need to make backup preparations. Backing up the
entire registry is fairly easy in Windows 98 and Me. It is more work
with Windows NT/2000/XP and Windows 95. Some antispyware and utility
programs also include a feature to make a quick registry back up.
Registry
Mechanic 4.0 for Windows
- is a nice program you may try/purchase ($30) to examine your registry
for items to fix and clean up. A quick back up feature is included.
Registry
Editor
is an advanced tool for viewing and changing settings in your system
registry, which contains information about how your computer runs.
Windows stores its configuration information in a database (the
registry) that is organized in a tree format. Almost all the settings
are stored in the registry, say when you resize an application window,
the x,y axis points [window pos] are stored in the registry so that the
settings are retained next time you open the application. This is just
an example, there are much more stored in the registry right from your
user account names and passwords [if configured to store in the
registry].
Backing up the XP Registry - Several methods
Method
1: Back up the entire Registry (
System
State
)
In both Windows XP Professional
and Windows XP Home Edition, you must be logged on with Administrator
privileges. (If you are not, even if you can start the Backup Wizard,
the "Only back up the
System
State
data" option will not be available.
NOTE:
NTBACKUP is not installed by default in Windows XP Home Edition.
Install it using the instructions available at: Q302894.
If you don't have a Windows XP CD-ROM (for OEM systems), get NTBACKUP.MSI
from here.
To
back up the entire registry:
- Click
Start > All Programs > Accessories > System
Tools > Backup.
- Click
Advanced Mode.
- Do
one of the following:
- If
you see the Backup or Restore Wizard as shown below, make sure that
"Always start in wizard mode" is not checked, and then
click Advanced Mode.
If you see
the Backup Utility window as shown below, go on to step 5.
- On
the Welcome tab, click the Backup Wizard (Advanced) tab.
- Click
Next.
- Select
Only back up the
System
State
data, and click Next.
- Click
the Browse button.
- If
the Insert Disk warning message displays, click Cancel.
- In
the left pane, click the Desktop button.
- Click
Save.
- Click
Next.
- Click
Finish.
- When
you see the message "The backup is complete" -- this could
take a few minutes--click Close.
- Close
the Backup Utility window.
To restore the registry from a saved system state
- Double-click
the backup file that you want to restore from.
- Click
the Restore Wizard (Advanced) button.
- Click
Next.
- In
the left pane, click the plus sign next to File.
- In
the left pane, click the plus sign next to the saved state that you
want to restore.
-
Check
System
State
.
- Click
Next.
- Click
Finish.
- Click
OK at the warning message.
- When
the restore process is complete, click Close.
- Your
registry is now restored. Click Yes to restart your computer.
Help from Microsoft
If you have any problems following these steps, see these Microsoft
Knowledge Base articles:
Method 2: EXPORTING a
selected branch of the registry
This
method is preferred if you're making changes to a specific key/area of
the registry.
1.
Click
Start, and then click Run. In the Open box, type regedit, and
then click OK.
2.
Locate
and then click the key that contains the value that you want to edit.
3.
On
the File menu, click Export.
4.
In
the Save in box, select a location where you want to save the
Registration Entries (.reg)
5.
In
the File name box, type a file name, and then click Save.
Backing
up a selected branch/key of the registry:
Now that you've created a
Registry backup for that particular key. Save the REG file in a safer
location in case you want to undo the registry changes made. You can
restore the settings by just double-clicking the REG file. It
automatically exports the contents to the Registry. Another method is to
backup the registry key in "Registry Hive Files" format.
When you restore a hive file containing a key, the Registry Editor
completely replaces the current key and all of its sub keys with the
contents of the hive file.
Method 3: Create a System
Restore Point
(Not Always Reliable)
Be aware that this method is
less reliable in case you want to rollback the registry changes made a
longtime ago, in which case the System Restore might have purged that
particular restore point - due to space constraints or due to a recent
system restore point or even a Restore point corruption. Please
remember, System Restore points get deleted for many reasons, making it
unreliable over longer time periods.
System Restore returns your
computer to a previous snapshot without losing recent personal
information, such as documents, history lists, favorites, or e-mail. It
monitors the computer and many applications for changes and creates
restore points. I call these restore points snapshots, but they're
really instructions for undoing recent changes. You restore these
snapshots when your configuration isn't working.
By default, Windows XP creates
restore points daily and when significant events occur, such as
installing an application or device driver. System Restore is ideal for
serious work in the registry because you can create your own restore
points any time you like. You can also change the snapshot schedule or
even script System Restore.
System Restore requires at least
200 MB of available disk space. If 200 MB of space isn't available,
Windows XP disables System Restore. By default, Windows XP allocates 12
percent of the hard disk's size (or 400 MB on hard disks that are
smaller than 4 GB), and this happens to be the most that Windows XP can
give it. You can otherwise configure the amount of disk space System
Restore consumes, though.
To
change the disk space System Restore uses:
Click
Start, click Control Panel, click Performance and Maintenance, and then
click System.
On
the System Restore tab, drag the slider left or right to adjust the
amount of disk space it uses.
However,
don't reduce the amount much because doing so limits the number of
restore points that System Restore can maintain.
Here's how to create a restore point using
System Restore:
1.
Click Start, point to All Programs, point
to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click System Restore.
2.
Click Create a Restore Point, and then
click Next.
3.
In the Restore point description box, type
a descriptive name for the restore point, and then click Create. System
Restore adds the date and time to the name of the restore point.
To restore a checkpoint, follow these steps:
1.
Start System Restore.
2.
Click Restore my computer to an earlier
time option, and then click Next.
3.
Select the restore point that you want to
restore, and then click Next.System Restore maintains up to 90 days of
restore points, given enough disk space, so you can move backward and
forward in the calendar to see the restore points created on each day.
In the calendar, shown in Figure 1, bold dates are those that
contain restore points.
4.
Click a date, and then click the restore
point in the list.
5.
Click Next again and Windows XP restarts
so it can restore your configuration to the restore point you selected.
Figure 1
Note:
If your configuration is unstable enough, sometimes you won't be
able to start Windows XP normally. That leaves you with safe mode,
a method of starting Windows using basic files and drivers only, without
networking. Safe mode is available by pressing the F8 key when prompted
during startup. In safe mode, you can't create restore points, but you
can restore ones that have already been created. So if Windows XP
doesn't start normally, start it in safe mode, restore to an earlier
configuration, and then restart the computer. See a Description
of Safe Mode Boot Options in Windows XP and How
to Perform Advanced Clean Boot Troubleshooting in Windows XP for
more information about safe mode.
Protecting the Registry While
you are EDITING it:
This is for all you Windows XP
enthusiasts who edit the registry using the Registry Editor (Regedit).
If you use any one of these methods, you'll almost never make a change
that you can't restore. Keep in mind that I use these methods to back up
specific branches of the registry while working in those branches. I
don't use them to back up the entire registry.
The first method is making
backup copies of individual values, which you can quickly restore in
the registry. These backups document the changes you make. Here's how to
do it:
1. Rename the original value to something like Initials_
Name, where Initials is your initials, and Name is the value's original
name.
2. Add a date if you think you're going to change the value
often.
3. Add a new value using the original name and type but with
new data. You're all set to change the value and if you don't like the
result, you can restore the original value with little effort.
Figure 2 shows backup
settings in the key HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop. The backup values begin
with JH_. Likewise, instead of deleting a value, which you can only
recover by memory because the Registry Editor doesn't have an Undo
feature, rename the value to hide it from any program that's looking for
it. The effect is the same, and you can always restore the value by
restoring its name:
Figure 2
The second method is to
export the part of the registry in which you're working to a REG file.
Import the REG file to restore the original settings. I'm not as keen on
this method as the next method I describe, since importing a REG file in
to the registry doesn't always restore keys to their original states
(importing a REG file doesn't remove settings from the registry that
you've added since creating the REG file). This is an acceptable option
for real quick backup copies of individual values, however, since you
can edit REG files to remove values that you don't want to restore.
The third method (and my
first choice when making big changes) is to export branches to hive
files. Hive files are better than REG files for backing up the
registry. When you restore a hive file containing a key, the Registry
Editor completely replaces the current key and all of its sub keys with
the contents of the hive file. Exporting branches to hive files is
similar to exporting them to REG files; you just pick a different file
type:
1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and click OK.
2. On the File menu, click Export.
3. In the Save as type list, click Registry Hive Files.
4. Type the name of the new hive file, and then click Save.
Reverse the process to restore
your settings: In the Registry Editor, click File, click Import,
click Registry Hive Files in the Save as type list, type
the name of the hive file to which you backed up your settings, and then
click Open. You can use any file extension you like, but I prefer
to give hive files the .dat extension. The .hiv extension
is also common for hive files.
If these techniques fail or if
you're planning on major registry surgery, move on to System Restore.
System Restore can get you out of trouble most of the time; it only
fails when Windows XP is so far gone that it no longer starts properly.
In that case, you're left with Automated System Recovery and Recovery
Console. See Reliability
Improvements in Windows XP Professional for an overview of this
console. But first, try starting Windows XP in safe mode and then run
System Restore.
You can also create a desktop
icon SCRIPT to make a quick System Restore Point prior to making edits
to the Registry. Here's how to create a script that will create a
restore point when you double-click it:
1. Using Notepad, type the
following listing and save it with the file extension .vbs and
make sure that you enclose the file name in quotation marks so Notepad
doesn't add the .txt file extension to the name.
Set SRP = GetObject( "winmgmts:\\.\root\default:Systemrestore" )
CSRP = SRP.CreateRestorePoint( "Hacked the registry", 0, 100 )
2. Double-click the script file
any time you want to make a snapshot, presumably before opening the
Registry Editor to tweak the registry.
Windows
2000
To back up the entire registry
- Click
Start > All Programs > Accessories > System
Tools > Backup.
- On
the Welcome tab click the Backup Wizard button.
- Click
Next.
- Select
"Only back up the
System
State
data" and click Next.
- Click
the Browse button.
- If
the "Insert Disk" warning message is displayed, click Cancel.
- In
the "Look in" drop-down box, choose Desktop.
- In
the "File name" box, enter a file name, for example, Reg
Backup.
- Click
Open.
- Click
Next.
- Click
Finish.
- When
you see the message "The backup is complete" -- this could
take a few minutes--click Close.
- Close
the Backup Utility window.
To restore the registry from a saved system state
- Double-click
the backup file that you want to restore from.
- Click
the Restore Wizard button.
- Click
Next.
- In
the left pane, click the plus sign next to File.
- In
the left pane, click the plus sign next to the saved state that you
want to restore.
-
Check
System
State
.
- Click
Next.
- Click
Finish.
- Click
OK at the warning message.
- When
the restore process is complete, click Close.
- Your
registry is now restored. Click Yes to restart your computer.
Windows
98 and ME
Before you edit the registry,
you should make a backup copy of the registry using the following steps:
1. Click Start, click Run, type
scanregw, and then click OK.
2. When you receive a prompt to
back up the registry, click Yes.
3. When you receive the
"Backup complete" message, click OK.
NOTE: When you back up the
registry, the Rb0x.cab file is created in the Windows\Sysbckup folder
(where x is a number from 0 to 5). Each time you back up the registry,
the oldest Rb0x.cab file is overwritten. Windows Registry Checker backs
up the System.dat, User.dat, System.ini, and Win.ini files, as well as
registry configuration information (including user account information,
protocol bindings, software program settings, and user preferences).
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