| When you hit the run icon and type in regedit, you find a series of
| directectories and such. Where can I find this folder ???
C:\Windows\System32\config\
But it's not a good idea to touch anything there.
| How can I copy
| the entire many pages and edit it and then re copy it back to a new
| installation copy of xp home 32 bit ???
|
You might find this helpful:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/256986
In Win9x what you want to do was feasible, but not
advisable. In WinNT it's more complex and there are file
access restrictions. In any case, I don't think you'd
want to do a direct copy.
What you can do is to export an entire "hive" as a
..reg file and then import that elsewhere. But note that
importing a .reg file does not delete anything. It just
adds/overwrites. (You can also edit a .reg file in Notepad,
but that's not realistic for more than a few settings.)
Registry terms: There are 6 main keys, which are often
called "hives". The "folders" below those are known as "keys".
The named values in a key are "values" and the actual
value is known as "data". This is a potentially confusing
jumble of terms taken from INI files, whhere there are
"sections" instead of keys, with values named "keys"
and data named "values". I don't mean to confuse things,
but if you know about INI files it helps to know about this
particular planning boondoggle at Microsoft. So:
Hives: HKEY_CURREENT_USER
Keys: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Zones\3
Values: "1001"
Data: 3
The above represents one of several settings that *may*
result in Internet Explorer blocking signed ActiveX controls.
(The settings you see in Internet Options show only this
set of settings. Malware, sleazy corporations and
corporate system admins can invisibly override them with
at least 4 other settings in completely different keys!...
Hopefully you know not to use IE online.)
The Registry is actually a remarkably efficient database.
You could spend months researching the values. And like
most things Microsoft produces, it's unnecessarily bloated
and unnecessarily abstruse. People make money writing books
that detail bizarre "secret Registry tweaks" that Microsoft
adds so that only corporate system admins in the know will
be able to control various system settings. (Just the settings
for Internet Explorer could fill a book....except that no one
would be able to understand it -- as demonstrated with the
sample above.
In brief, the main keys you might be interested in are
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE (HKLM), HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
(HKCR), and HKEY_CURRENT_USER (HKCU).
HKCR is actually a representation of the HKLM\Software\Classes
key. HKCR details file types and "classes". Classes are registered
COM objects. COM (component object model) is a system that
allows programming libraries to be registered with the system for
use by software. The HKCR key provides a central point where
COM objects can be located and loaded. (COM is another book.)
The main key of interest in HKLM is HKLM\Software, where many
system settings and program settings are located. HKCU\Software
does the same for each user.
There are countless reasons not to just copy the Registry over
to a new machine, even if you could. Windows has simply become
far too complex for that. The hardware settings would be invalid
in a new machine... The HKCR settings would be a disaster, unless
you had all the exact same software and system files on the new
PC... The HKLM and HKCU Software settings would be invalid unless
you had all the exact same software installed.
Example: Outlook Express stores settings in HKCU, but most
are stored under a key named with a random GUID. OE also stores
email files in the personal "AppData" folder, using the same GUID.
On a new PC where you copy over the OE settings, it won't help
because there's a new GUID for your account. And if you overwrite
that GUID you'll lose all of your email because OE will no longer
see the files in AppData! A different example: You can carry over
your Firefox settings, but FF puts almost nothing in the Registry.
All of its settings are in an AppData subfolder. A third example: Your
current Registry's HKCR may have IrfanView assigned to open .jpg files.
On your new PC you don't have IrfanView, so there's an error when
you double-click a .jpg file.
This could go on all day...
As you can see, the Registry is very complex and very messy.
In practice it's even more messy because Microsoft has made
Windows settings into a breathtakingly vast mess. To a
great extent that was deliberate. It's a combination of two
things: 1) A sort of secret decoder ring fetish that seems to affect
a lot of geeks, causing them to manufacture abstruseness and long,
uninformative names for things. 2) The abstruseness provides a
way to discourage most people from controlling their own PC. Since
Microsoft aims Windows mainly at corporations they want to satisfy
the system admins who control those machines. Even with home/small
office PCs the abstruseness helps corporate interests: Very few
people know the "secret" setting to remove "Provided by Hewlett Packard"
from the IE title bar, for instance, so HP gets a free ad. And making things
confusing saves on support costs. Every time MS adds an unnecessary
button marked "Advanced" they scare 95% of their customers away
from adjusting the settings that hide behind that button.
In addition to all that, there's little standardization between software
programs about how to store settings. (The current fad with 3rd-party
software is not to put settings into the Registry at all.) What you probably
want to do is to research the settings that will apply to your personal
preferences, then export some of those keys on the new PC.
The biggest export that *might* turn out OK would be to
export/import the following:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
But before you do that I would strongly advise that you look over
those subkeys first, so that you have an idea of how many changes
you'll be making on the new PC.
