The hierarchical database – Registry – for Windows stores settings and options for configuration on MS Windows operating systems.

The registry contains set-up for components of low-level operating systems and the applications based on that platform. Registry is used by device drivers, the kernels, SAM, user interface, services and all the third party software.

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

The primary function of the Windows registry, when it was initially launched with Windows 3.1, was to accumulate configuration details regarding COM-based components.

But the use of Windows Registry extended with the launch of Windows NT and Windows 95. It included a large number of per-program INI files wherein configuration settings for Windows had been stored.

The Windows registry has two essentials: keys and values.

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

The Windows API functions, which query and maneuver registry values, obtain the names of values distinctly from the key path and/or from the handle that recognizes the parent key.

The terminology seems to be misleading because the values resemble to an associative array. This associative array uses standard terminology for referring the name part of the value as a key.

The terminologies are a proffer from the 16-bit registry of Windows 3, wherein keys did not possess arbitrary pairs of name/data, but instead had just a single unnamed value that essentially needed to be a string.

The biggest advantage of Registry in Microsoft Windows is that it can be edited manually with the help of regedit.exe or regedt32.exe in the Windows directory.

However, sloppy registry editing can lead to a slow computer 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.

But the users need to be cautious as the two editors on the aforementioned platforms differ tremendously.

For the first time, the two programs were merged into one by Windows XP, which adopted the traditional REGEDIT.EXE as interface and added to it the functionality of REGEDT32.EXE.

These editors do not show such differences on Windows XP and newer systems. For instance – REGEDIT.EXE is the more refined and sophisticated editor, while REGEDT32.EXE is only a stub that invokes REGEDIT.EXE.

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

• Importing and exporting .REG files, exporting data in the binary hive format
• Creating, manipulating, renaming and deleting registry keys, subkeys, values and value data
• Setting permissions based on ACLs (Windows NT-based systems only)
• Loading, manipulating and unloading registry hive format files (Windows NT-based systems only)
• Remotely editing the registry on another networked computer

Linux platform too allows for editing the registry with the assistance of an open source tool called Offline NT Password & Registry Editor.