Registry Part 2

Keeping the Registry Safe

The sheer wealth of data stored in one place makes the Registry convenient, but it also
makes it very precious. If your Registry went missing somehow, or if it got corrupted,
Windows 7 simply would not work. With that scary thought in mind, let’s take a moment
to run through several protective measures. The techniques in this section should ensure
that Windows 7 never goes down for the count because you made a mistake while editing
the Registry.
Preventing Other Folks from Messing with the Registry
Do you share your computer with other people? How brave! In that case, there’s a pretty
good chance that you don’t want them to have access to the Registry Editor. In Windows
7, User Account Control automatically blocks Standard users unless they know an administrator’s
password. For other administrators, you can prevent any user from using the
Registry Editor by setting a group policy:
1. Select Start, type gpedit.msc, and then press Enter.
2. Open the User Configuration, Administrative Templates, System branch.
3. Double-click the Prevent Access to Registry Editing Tools policy.
4. Click Enabled.
5. In the Disable Regedit from Running Silently? list, click Yes.
6. Click OK.
Note that you won’t be able to use the Registry Editor, either. However, you can overcome
that by temporarily disabling this policy prior to running the Registry Editor. Even
better, you can run the following script, which toggles the Registry Editor between
enabled and disabled:

Finding Registry Entries

The Registry contains only five root keys, but they contain hundreds of subkeys. The fact
that some root keys are aliases for subkeys in a different branch only adds to the confusion.
If you know exactly where you’re going, the Registry Editor’s tree-like hierarchy is a
reasonable way to get there. If you’re not sure where a particular subkey or setting
resides, however, you could spend all day poking around in the Registry’s labyrinthine
nooks and crannies.
To help you get where you want to go, the Registry Editor has a Find feature that enables
you to search for keys, settings, or values. Here’s how it works:
1. In the Keys pane, select Computer at the top of the pane (unless you’re certain of
which root key contains the value you want to find; in this case, you can highlight
the appropriate root key instead).
2. Select Edit, Find or press Ctrl+F. The Registry Editor displays the Find dialog box