95 Registry Tips & Tricks Troubleshooting
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95 Registry
WARNING!!
Editing the registry is very dangerous if you are
not sure of what you are doing. Always backup your registry before you make any
changes.
You can also back up just the key you are changing. First
highlight the key, then select export
from the File menu. Choose where you want to save the file (use a .reg
extension). If you don't like
the change, right click the exported file and select merge from the context menu.
Helpful files
CFGBACK.EXE is a registry backup program that is included on the CD, in the Resource Kit and is also available at WWW.MICROSOFT.COM. You can also get the Resource Kit and other files that are on the CD here.
REGEDIT.EXE is the registry editor and can also be used to export (backup) and import (restore) the registry.
Windows 95 Registry Location
The registry is a database which hold information about your hardware, software, system
configuration, preferences and user settings (if using a multi-user configuration). It
defines the look and function of Windows 95 and also replaces ".INI" files. It
is easy to get into and edit, but very dangerous to do so. BEFORE ATTEMPTING ANY
CHANGES TO THE REGISTRY, YOU ARE ADVISED TO MAKE A REGISTRY BACKUP. Neither I nor
Microsoft will accept responsibility for changes that you make.
The registry files are contained in your WINDOWS directory and are hidden system files:
- SYSTEM.DAT and USER.DAT - Are the current registry.
- SYSTEM.DA0 and USER.DA0 - Are backups of the above files. Windows 95 will use these files to recover in the even that Windows 95 will not boot up properly. They are over-written each time the system successfully boots.
- SYSTEM.1ST - Is the backup of the SYSTEM.DAT which was created the first time Windows 95 successfully started. It is contained in the root directory.
Keys
| Hkey_Local_Machine | Contains computer specific information about the type of hardware,software, and other preferences on your computer. This information is used regardless of who logs onto the computer. For instance if you want to change the name that is displayed to all users on the network, you could change this under this key. | |
| Hkey_Local_Machine may contain the following Subkeys | ||
| Config: | A collection of configurations for the local computer usually you will find information about the display settings such as the fonts and printers that are configured on your system. contains information about alternate hardware configurations for the computer. For example, it can contain information about multiple configurations to be used when the computer is connected to a network, when it is undocked from a docking station, and so on. Each alternate configuration is assigned a unique identifier, and this configuration ID has a subkey under the Config key. Each configuration appears in the list of hardware profiles in the System option in Control Panel. When Windows 95 checks the hardware configuration at system startup, one of three things occurs: In most situations, the configuration ID is mapped to a unique configuration and Windows 95 selects the appropriate one automatically, and the settings for the related Config subkey are used for system configuration. If the user is starting the computer for the first time with new hardware components, Windows 95 creates a new configuration for the new configuration ID, and a new Config subkey is added to the Registry. If the configuration ID is mapped to more than one configuration (for example, because Windows 95 cannot distinguish between two configurations), the user is prompted to choose which configuration to use. | |
| Enum: | Contains Information about the system's
installed hardware devices. You need to be particularly careful when editing in this area
because your system could quickly become unusable if a mistake is made. Windows 95
bus enumerators are responsible for building the hardware tree. This includes assigning an
identification code to each device on its bus and retrieving the device's configuration
information, either directly from the device or from the Registry. For all types of
devices, subkeys contain information such as device type, assigned drive letter, hardware
ID, and device manufacturer, plus driver-related information for network components.
Typical subkeys that might be found in this section of the database are: -ESDI -Fixed disk devices -Floppy disk devices -ISAPNP -Plug and Play devices on an ISA bus -Monitor -Monitor devices -Network -Network protocol, server, and bindings -Root -Legacy devices |
|
| Network: | Created when a user logs on to a networked PC. Login information including the user name, primary network provider, whether the logon was validated by a server, and information about the system policies processor, is collected each time a user logs onto the computer. .I use this section frequently when I want to know exactly who is logged onto the and want to process information accordingly. I have made several applications that use the username settings to do this. | |
| Security: | Contains information about network security and remote administration. Usually this area is fairly void. | |
| Software: | Contains information about the software that you have installed on your system. Usually the software subkey will start with the actual company name that produced the software such as Microsoft, Adobe etc. The software subkey contains, for example, the information you add when registering an application to use a specific filename extension and information added during installation of Windows-based applications. If you want to change how a program works this is a good place to start. | |
| System: | The database that controls system start-up, device driver loading, Windows 95 services, and operating system behavior the this key is organized into control sets that contain a complete set of parameters for device drivers and services that can be loaded with Windows 95. All data that controls startup is described in the CurrentControlSet subtree under Hkey_Local_Machine \ System. This control set has two parts: The Control key contains information used to control system startup, including the computer's network name and the subsystems to start. The Services key contains information to control the loading and configuration of drivers, file systems, and so on. The data in the Services key also controls how these services call each other. | |
| Hkey_Current_Config | This Key points to a branch of the Key Hkey_Local_Machine \Config that contains information about the current hardware configuration. You will quickly notice that the registry usually contains duplicate references to the same data. I am told this is to keep checks and balances in place so there is less corruption in the registry. | |
| Hkey_Current_Config may contain the following Subkeys | ||
| Display: | Contains font and display settings. These settings are a duplicate of information found in the Hkey_Local_Machine/Config | |
| System: | Contains information about installed printers. These settings are again duplications of information found in Hkey_local_Machine/Config | |
| Hkey_Dyn_Data | This Key points to a branch of Hkey_Local_Machine that contains various bits Dynamic information regarding the System's Plug and Play configuration. This information changes continuously as devices are added to or removed from the computer, such as a removable Hard Drive or PCMCIA card. | |
| Hkey_Classes_Root | This Key points to a branch of Hkey_Local_Machine that describes software settings for software that is installed on your system. This Key contains essential information about OLE and drag and drop operations, shortcuts, and information about how the Windows 95 interface looks and feels. | |
| Hkey_Users | This Key contains information about the users that log onto the computer. Both generic and user-specific information is used, and each user who uses the system has their own Subkey. | |
| Hkey_Current_User | This Key points to a branch of Hkey_Users for the user who is currently logged onto the system. | |
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