How to open the Windows registry: all methods. How to open Windows Registry Editor How to open regedit windows 8

Home / Installing programs

Windows Registry - Settings Database operating system, containing information and settings for all computer components: PC hardware, software, system parameters. In many cases, when working on a computer, the user needs to open Windows registry to make operating system settings, change OS settings or installed applications.

The system registry, or Windows registry, contains all the necessary data to manage system settings and settings. The normal functioning of the Windows operating system depends on the state of the registry.

After making modifications to the registry settings, the configuration and settings of the system or programs installed on the computer are changed. To make changes or correct some settings, you must enter the operating system registry. The question arises: how to open the registry editor on a computer? How to enter the Windows registry?

The Windows operating system has a special Registry Editor application (regedit.exe) for working with registry data. The system's built-in tool, the Registry Editor program, is well suited for working with registry branches (the registry has a tree form). Individual files registries have different locations in the operating system. Therefore, to make changes to the system registry, you should launch the Windows Registry Editor on your computer.

Please note:

Incorrect or incorrect modification of registry settings can lead to problems with the operating system. Because of this, the user will have to perform a system restore or reinstall Windows. Before editing the registry, take steps to restore the system's functionality in case of unsuccessful actions: make a backup copy of the registry, create a system restore point, run backup system partition.

How to open Registry Editor in different versions Windows operating system? There are several universal methods enter the Windows Registry Editor the same way in all versions of the operating system. In the article, we will further analyze how to enter the Windows 10 registry, how to enter the Windows 8.1 (Windows 8) registry, and how to open the Windows 7 registry editor, in relation to each system.

You can open the Registry Editor in Windows in the same way for different versions of the operating system using 5 methods:

Login using the Run dialog box
running the "regedit" file from the "Windows" folder in Explorer
opening with command line or Windows PowerShell
find the application using search on the taskbar or from the Start menu
launching the registry editor using a pre-created shortcut

First, let's look at universal methods applicable to different Windows versions, and then look separately at additional methods for Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7.

How to access the system registry from the Run dialog box

Using the Run dialog box to launch the Registry Editor works in all modern versions of the operating system: Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP.

On a Windows operating system, follow these steps:

Press the “Win” + “R” keys on your keyboard at the same time.
In the “Run” window, in the “Open” field, enter the expression: “regedit” (without quotes), and then click on the “OK” button.

After this, the Registry Editor application window will open on your computer.

How to enter the registry on a computer from the Windows folder

Another way to enter the registry editor is to launch the application directly from the Windows system folder on the computer. This method can be used on Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP.

The only caveat: you need to be careful in your actions, as you will enter the folder with the operating system. Be careful what you do.

Follow these sequential steps:

Open File Explorer on your computer.
Enter the “C:” drive, open the “Windows” folder.
Find and then double-click on the “regedit” application.

The system Registry Editor will open on your computer.

How to open the registry using the command line

You can launch the Registry Editor from the command line.

Do the following:

Run Command Prompt as Administrator.
In the command line interpreter window, type: “regedit” (without quotes), and then press the Enter key.

How to Login to Registry Editor Using Windows PowerShell

The Registry Editor is launched from Windows PowerShell like this:

Run Windows PowerShell as an administrator.
In the PowerShell window, type: "regedit" (without quotes), and then press "Enter".

Create a shortcut to launch Windows Registry Editor

If the user is not ready to take several steps each time to launch system application, you can make this task easier. To do this, you need to create a shortcut that will launch the Registry Editor on your computer.

Follow these steps:

Run file manager Windows Explorer.
Open Local Drive "C:".
Enter the "Windows" folder.
Find the "regedit" application, click on it right click mice.
From the context menu, first select "Send to" and then "Desktop (create shortcut)."
A shortcut to launch the Registry Editor system tool will appear on your computer's desktop.

Now, you can easily open the Registry Editor by double-clicking the left mouse button on the application shortcut.

How to open the registry in Windows 10

Let's see how to enter the Windows 10 registry in a different way, using search. First we will find the application on the computer and then launch the system tool.

To open the Registry Editor in Windows 10, do the following:

On the Taskbar, click on the search icon, or left-click on the Start menu.
Enter the expression “regedit” (without quotes) on your keyboard, and then execute the command.

The Windows 10 Registry Editor is open and ready to make changes to the appropriate sections.

How to enter the Windows 8.1 registry (Windows 8)

In operating rooms Windows systems 8.1 (original version) and Windows 8 lack the Start menu, so some users have difficulty searching desired application on PC.

Windows 8.1 Update 1 has a built-in Start menu, so you can search for Registry Editor on your computer this way:

Right-click on the Start menu.
Select "Find".
In the Search field, enter "regedit" (without quotes).
Launch the application.

Another universal method for Windows 8.1 and Windows 8:

Move your mouse cursor down from the top right edge of the screen.
In the sidebar that opens, click on the “Search” icon.
In the search field, enter the expression: "regedit".
Run the command.

As a result, the Windows 8.1 Registry Editor (Windows 8) will start on the computer.

How to open the registry in Windows 7

Now we will try to enter the Windows 7 registry. In the seven, in addition to the universal methods described above, there is one more way to enter the registry editor.

In the Windows 7 operating system, to open the Registry Editor, do the following:

Go to the Start menu.
In the "Search files and programs" field, enter "regedit" (without the quotes).
Launch the Registry Editor application.

Conclusion

If necessary, the user can enter the Windows Registry Editor to make changes to the settings system registry. You can enter the Windows registry in several ways: using the Run dialog box, launching a system tool from a previously created application shortcut, opening the registry editor in the command line or in Windows PowerShell, launching an application from the Windows system folder, searching for and launching the editor registry in different versions of the operating system.

When I hear the phrase Windows registry, I imagine the program icon regedit.exe - a half-disassembled green cube consisting of smaller cubes. What exactly is a registry? I think many Windows users have heard about it, but not many have seen it and understand what kind of miracle it is.

The Windows 8 registry is a database containing operating system and program settings. So, the registry is a database. Like any other database, the registry is stored in files on the hard drive. There are several registry files, the main part is located in the C:\Windows\System32\config folder (%windir%\system32\config). If you look into this folder, then all the files opposite which the type “File” is indicated will be the same registry files.

Another place where registry files are stored is in the root folder of user profiles and along the path C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows (%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows). Each profile has its own registry files, since each account uses its own unique Windows registry hive (section), because all profiles have unique settings. To open your profile, press the WIN+R key combination, in the window that appears, type %userprofile% and click OK. These files will probably be hidden from you; you need to enable the display of hidden and system files to see them. In the screenshot below you can see that the registry file is NTUSER.DAT, the rest are logs necessary for recovery in case of an unexpected failure.

What do we have on at the moment? The Windows 8 registry is stored in files scattered across folders. In order to view or edit some settings of the operating system or programs, you can use the regedit.exe program. It is stored in the C:\Windows folder, but you can launch it by pressing WIN+R and typing regedit. In general, Microsoft does not recommend making changes to Windows settings directly through the registry, and use the existing user interface of the operating system. If you ran regedit, I recommend not making any changes, but just familiarizing yourself with the database structure.

Since all Windows settings are stored in the registry, in the absence of that same user interface(which is typical for trimmed Windows versions such as Windows 7 Starter), many settings can be changed through the registry. For example, you can use regedit to change the desktop background by specifying your path to the image file, although this cannot be done through the Control Panel.

That's all I would like to tell you.

The registry is a large database that stores all the parameters necessary for normal operation operating system. You can view it through the registry editor, which is available in Windows. Any user can log in if their account has administrator rights.

And if you made any changes, or the computer turned off by itself, for various reasons, or you accidentally pressed the wrong key and deleted a parameter or an entire registry branch, then this may not have the best effect on the operation of the computer.

And yet, if this happens, let's figure out what methods exist to restore the Windows 7 and Windows 8 registry so that the computer can operate normally.

Using a backup

As you probably guessed, this method is not suitable for everyone. If you previously created backups registry via “File” - “Export” - read on, if not, move on to the next method.

So, you have a backup copy. Press the combination Win + R, the “Run” window will open. In the “Open” field we write regedit and click “OK”.

The Registry Editor window should appear. In it, go to the “File” tab and select “Import” from the menu.

Explorer will open, find the previously created backup in it and click “Open”.

Wait while the files are copied.

Using System Restore

System recovery can be done using restore checkpoints. You could create them earlier, when the system was stable and you were satisfied with everything. Or they could be created automatically by the system: when making changes to the computer configuration, before installing drivers, etc.

Let's first consider how to restore the registry if the operating system boots. In Windows 7, go to Start - "Control Panel".

Here we are interested in the point "Recovery".

In the next window, click "Run System Restore".

Now you need to select a restore point. If there are several points, and you are in doubt, look at the date the point was created - did your computer work normally on these dates?! - choose her. Clicking "Search for affected programs", you can see which programs will be removed as a result of recovery. Click "Next".

We confirm the system rollback to the selected state by clicking “Finish”.

All data, including the registry, will correspond to the state that was at the time the selected recovery point was created.

If you have Windows 8 installed on your computer, read the article: Windows 8 restore point and system rollback. There you will be interested in the second part. The steps you will need to perform are the same as those described above.

If the OS does not start

Restore the registry if the computer does not turn on It's also possible. In the Windows 7 operating system, when booting the computer, press the F8 button at intervals of 1 second. A window will appear "More download options". In it, use the arrows to select the item "Troubleshooting your computer".

In the next window, select your language and click Next.

Choose yours account, it is better that she has administrator rights, then enter the password if you have one set when logging in, and click “OK”.

The following window should appear, select the item in it "System Restore".

A recovery window will open, click “Next” in it and repeat the steps described in the paragraph above.

If you have Windows 8 installed on your computer, you can press F8 or Shift+F8 when loading, but you are unlikely to see a window for additional download options. It's best to use a system repair disk or bootable USB flash drive. You can create them on any other computer with Windows 8 installed.

Follow the link and read the article on how to restore Windows 8. Everything is described there in detail. You should see the following window. Then follow the path: “Diagnostics” – "System Restore", and select the desired restore point.

Via command line

In Windows, the files that are responsible for the operation of the registry are stored in the following path: C: (your system drive letter)/Windows/System32/config. The RegBack folder is also located there; backup copies of all registry branches are stored in it. They are updated automatically by the system, depending on the settings, every 5-10 days.

We need to do the following: delete the files DEFAULT, SAM, SECURITY, SYSTEM, SOFTWARE, which are located in the config folder, and replace them with similar files from the RegBack folder.

We will not be able to do this in the operating system, since we will need to replace the files responsible for its operation. Therefore, you need to use additional boot options and open the command line.

In Windows 7, press F8 when the system boots. Then you need to do everything as described in the paragraph above. In the window "System Recovery Options", select item "Command line". As a result, the command line will launch as administrator.

In Windows 8, you can open the command line using the combination. This is described in detail in the article: Windows 8 Safe Mode. Read the point: go to safe mode using the combination Shift+reboot. When the following window appears, select "Command line".

If the computer does not turn on at all due to changes in the registry, then read the paragraph: enter safe mode using a system repair disk (you can create it on any computer with installed Windows 8).

So, we launched the command line. Now enter the following commands line by line. At the end of each line, press Enter. First, let's create a badreg folder on system disk, we will copy all the files of our non-working registry into it. Then we safely delete the files DEFAULT, SAM, SECURITY, SYSTEM, SOFTWARE from the config folder, because we have copies of them. And lastly, copy the backups from the regback folder to the config folder.

MD c:\badreg
copy c:\windows\system32\config\default c:\badreg
copy c:\windows\system32\config\sam c:\badreg
copy c:\windows\system32\config\system c:\badreg
copy c:\windows\system32\config\security c:\badreg
copy c:\windows\system32\config\software c:\badreg

delete c:\windows\system32\config\default
delete c:\windows\system32\config\sam
delete c:\windows\system32\config\system
delete c:\windows\system32\config\security
delete c:\windows\system32\config\software

copy c:\windows\system32\config\regback\default c:\windows\system32\config\
copy c:\windows\system32\config\regback\sam c:\windows\system32\config\
copy c:\windows\system32\config\regback\system c:\windows\system32\config\
copy c:\windows\system32\config\regback\security c:\windows\system32\config\
copy c:\windows\system32\config\regback\software c:\windows\system32\config\
exit

After you enter the exit command, the command prompt window will close and the computer will restart.

I hope one of the methods will help you restore the registry in the Windows 7 or 8 operating system.

Rate this article:

(3 ratings, average: 3,67 out of 5)

Webmaster. Higher education with a degree in Information Security. Author of most articles and computer literacy lessons

Discussion: 16 comments

I enter the commands in the line as shown, for some reason it says: “the system was unable to find this path,” what should I do?

Answer

Most likely, your DEFAULT, SAM, SECURITY, SYSTEM, SOFTWARE folders are located in a different path, but not c:\windows\system32\config.

Answer
1. So what should I do?
  
  Answer
  1. You need to find out the way to specified files. You are 32 bit version installed or 64-bit?

Today's topic is about the eight. As you already know, this OS has changed a lot GUI, and even experienced users found it difficult to find familiar elements. For example, due to the redesign of the start menu, not everyone could, and many such situations arose. To make it easier for users, let’s take a closer look at how to enter the registry in Windows 8 in several ways.

Remember, any changes made through the registry editor may negatively affect the stable operation of your computer. Before editing, make a system restore point, through which, in case of an error, you will return the PC to a working state. You can also make a copy of the registry section that you are editing. After all the preparations, you can start running regedit.

Ways to open the Registry Editor in Windows 8

The first method uses search. Click "start" and you will be taken to the start screen. In this area, move all the way to the right, then click the magnifying glass icon located near the power control (shutdown) button.

Note: You don't have to go to the start screen, just press Win + W where you are now.

A panel with a search form will appear in front of you, where you will need to enter regedit.exe. After successful input, click Enter key or select Registry Editor from the list that appears below.

If you see a UAC window, click “yes”. This way you can access the registry on Windows 8.

In order not to enter the name of the editor file each time, I suggest placing the regedit file shortcut in a visible place. While typing the file name, when regedit appears in the list, right-click on it and select one of the following options:

Pin to Start Screen - Pins the Windows 8 Registry Editor as a tile to the work area of the Start screen.
Pin to taskbar – The most productive of these two methods, a registry shortcut is placed on the taskbar.

The second method is to click on the item context menu. Windows 7 does not provide this function, so in the previous article we added this item manually. Right-click on an empty space on your desktop. IN open menu Select the item called “registry editor”.

In the third method it is necessary. This is done by a combination Windows keys+ R, after which the familiar construction regedit.exe is entered into the line, then Enter or OK is pressed.

By following 1 of 3 recommendations, you can enter the Windows 8 registry in a way convenient for you. All the described recommendations can be used equally, and there is no clear leader here. Sometimes a picture emerges that after trying all the steps, the Windows 8 Registry Editor does not open, showing an error that, follow the link to fix the problem.

It’s been a while since I wrote in the “For Beginners” section, so I think that’s enough rambling. After thinking a little about the topic of the article, I decided to write about ways to enter the Windows Registry Editor. Although I write in each of the articles how to enter the registry. I'd rather write everything down possible ways, available by default on Windows operating systems. So what is a registry?

The Windows registry is a database containing all the settings and parameters necessary for the operation of the operating system. It contains settings for both hardware and software. Most changes in control panel, editor group policies And additional parameters systems are written to the registry.

So, how do you enter the Windows Registry Editor?

Login through the Run utility

This is the method I use in my articles, since, in my opinion, it is the fastest and most convenient. We perform three simple steps.

Via search in the Start menu

First, let's take Windows 7 as an example, since it has an old version of the Start menu and this option is suitable for older operating systems.

For Windows 7, Vista and earlier versions

For Windows 8 and Windows 8.1

Opening through Windows Explorer

A very simple way: you just need to find required file V system folder. To do this, we follow the path:C:\Windows. We look for the file and run it.