Registry Tips & Tricks for WinXP

Registry Tips & Tricks for Windows XP

The Registry in Microsoft Windows XP is a database that stores settings used by Windows XP. This includes individual user settings, software settings and hardware settings. While Microsoft does not advise making manual changes to the Windows XP registry, many an avid user has tweaked their registry to achieve a variety of effects.

Registry Changes
To make any changes to your Windows XP registry, you will need to use Regedit, which can be accessed by clicking “Start”->”Run” and typing Regedit into the text box and pressing “Enter.” From there, your registry can be navigated similar to any other file explorer window. Use the directory tree on the left window to locate the entries referred to in this article. The right window will contain the settings, and can be modified by double-clicking on the “Name” of each property. Also, right-clicking on a blank area on the right window will give you the ability to create a new setting value. Remember that changes to the registry won’t take effect until the computer has been restarted.

Registry Backup
There are a lot of Windows XP Registry modifications available out there, but before making any changes to your Registry, you should create a backup in case the functionality of your computer is affected by any changes made. To create a backup, start Regedit and click “File”->”Export…” and then name your registry backup. Select a location that will be easy to find and click “Save.” To reload a registry backup, simply double-click on the backup registry file.