HowTo Backup a Registry Key
The registry is the nerve center of the Windows computer system. It contains extensive information about how your system works and the way that it is set up. So, if something were to go wrong with your system and the registry becomes damaged, it would be good to have some of those setting readily available on case you need to recover them.
One really easy way of backing up select information in the registry is exporting that information using the Registry Editor that comes with Windows. This is a relatively easy process that can save you a lot of time and effort.
For our example, let’s assume that we are working with the programs that start automatically when we start the computer. We want to be sure that we don’t mess up these registry entries so we want to back up the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run registry key. To do this, we would perform the following steps.
- Start the Registry Editor by going to Start→Run…, typing in regedit and then clicking the OK button.
- Browse to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run registry key and click on it.
- Under the File menu, click on Export…
- Save the file as Startup.reg on the desktop.
You have successfully saved the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run registry key as Startup.reg.
The Startup.reg file is actually just a text file and you can open it up in notepad to see what iis in it. If you want to add these registry settings back into your registry, simply right-click on the Startup.reg file and select Merge.
If you found this post useful, why don't you buy me a cup of coffee to show your gratitude?Note: When you merge a registry file back into the registry, it will overwrite any settings that are in that registry key. Use with caution!
