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

To start making changes to the registry, press the Win + R keys and enter the command regedit

Locking the right Charms Bar

When you hover your mouse over the lower right or upper corner of the monitor, a panel pops up Charms Bar. This is not always convenient, especially if at the moment this panel is not needed. To lock the panel, open the registry editor and find the section

in this section DisableCharmsHint and assign a value to it 1

Blocking the left panel of Switcher

To lock the left panel in the same section

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ImmersiveShell\EdgeUI

create a DWORD type parameter with the name DisableTLcorner and assign a value 1 .

To bring back the panels on hover, change the settings to 0

Disable Windows 8 lock screen

The lock screen in Windows 8 is a Metro interface that appears when the computer boots or exits sleep mode. To disable the lock screen, open the registry editor and in the section

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\

create a section Personalization. In the section Personalization create a DWORD type parameter with the name NoLockScreen and assign a value 1

Speed up the launch of applications from Windows 8 startup

In Windows 8, applications do not start from startup immediately, but after the Metro interface and its components load. It is impossible to remove this pause completely, but you can reduce the loading time. Open the registry editor and in the section

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

create a section Serialize In this section we create a DWORD type parameter with the name StartupDelayInMSec and value equal 0

Changes will take effect after reboot

The Windows registry is a repository for all operating system settings on which the correct and correct operation of all software depends. All changes made are saved in it and often, to solve many problems or to fight viruses, you need to manually find the desired parameter and change the settings in it.

It should be remembered that all changes made can radically affect the further operation of your computer, and therefore they should be made only if you are confident in your actions.

To enter the registry to change Windows settings, you need to open a window with its directory tree. There are two options here, the first is click “Start” - “Run” or the second is the key combination “Win + R”. A small window will open on the screen with a command line, in it you need to enter the following command - “regedit”. Then press Enter or OK.

Next, a registry will open in front of you, or rather a window in which you can search for software settings and system support and, if necessary, change the settings of its operation.

Let's start with the latest Windows 10, and consider two options for accessing the registry.
Launching Registry Editor - Method 1 for Windows 10

Click the "Start" button with the left mouse button (or the "Windows" key on the keyboard);
When the Start menu opens, type the command “regedit” (without quotes) on your keyboard;
At the top of the search menu, under the inscription “Best match”, the item “REGEDIT – Execute command” will appear, click on this item with the left mouse button;

If a confirmation window for launching Registry Editor appears, click “Yes”;
The Registry Editor window will appear in front of you, in which you can make changes to the registry itself.
How to open the registry in Windows 10

Launching Registry Editor - Method 2 for Windows 10

Click the Start button right click mouse (or keyboard shortcut Win+X);
In the menu that appears, select “Run” (these two steps can be replaced with one key combination Win+R);
In the “Run” window that appears, type “regedit” (without quotes) and click “OK”;
In the launch confirmation window, click “Yes”;
The Registry Editor window will appear, and you can start making changes.
You can clearly see how to enter the Windows 10 registry in this video:

How to open the registry in Windows 8/8.1

To launch the Registry Editor in Windows 8, you need to follow the same steps as in Windows 10, if you have version 8 and not 8.1, then you do not have a “Start” button, so in the first step of the first method, press the “Windows” key, and then everything according to the instructions above.
Detailed video instructions on how to enter the Registry Editor in Windows 8 (8.1):

How to open the registry in Windows 7

To open the Registry Editor in Windows 7, you need to follow similar steps:
Launching Registry Editor - Method 1 for Windows 7

Type the command “regedit” (without quotes);
Click at the top of the menu, under the inscription “Programs” on the inscription “regedit”;
When prompted to confirm the launch, select “Yes.”
Launching Registry Editor - Method 2 for Windows 7

Press the Win+R key combination on your keyboard (hold down Windows key and, without releasing it, press the R key);
In the “Run” window, type the command “regedit” (without quotes) and click the “OK” button;
Confirm the launch of the registry editor with the “Yes” button.
Both methods of entering the Windows 7 Registry Editor can be seen in this video:

How to open the registry in Windows XP

In Windows XP, opening the Registry Editor is slightly different:
Launching Registry Editor - Method 1 for Windows XP

Click on “Start” with the left mouse button;
In the right column, find the “Run” item (both steps can be replaced with the Win+R combination)
In the “Run the program” window, write the command “regedit” (without quotes) and click the “OK” button;
Opening the registry in XP

Launching Registry Editor - Method 2 for Windows XP (and more)

Open File Explorer (you can use the keyboard shortcut Win+X);
Go to drive “C:”;
Open the Windows folder;
Find the "regedit" file and run it.
And, of course, a video version of opening a registry editing program in Windows XP:

The second method is suitable for all of the listed versions of Windows. Moreover, you can cheat a little:
Once you get to the “regedit” file, you can create a shortcut on your desktop and greatly simplify access to the Registry Editor in the future.

Launching the editor There are at least 4 ways to call this utility:

Through Explorer.

Using search

Using the Run service. Command line. There is no need to describe them all, since some require a certain level of knowledge and skills to use, but it would be inappropriate not to mention them. So let's get started.

Via Explorer

Open “My Computer”, go to system disk(often this is C) and enter in the search bar: regedit. After some time, which the machine needs to search, the same editor will be offered in the main part of the window. All that remains is to open it and begin to perform the required actions. to the content.

Through search

We move the mouse cursor over the right panel, where we select “Search” and set the same command as in the previous paragraph: regedit. Then double-click to activate the application itself. The utility itself looks like this: READ ALSO What is virtual machine for Windows 8 and how to launch it to the content.

Via the "Run" command

This option involves calling an intermediate component. We use the combination + [R] on the keyboard, after which we enter the already familiar Regedit.exe or without the “.exe” extension into the field and press.
1. Launch the Registry Editor using the Run utility.

I will not tire of repeating that the “Run” utility is one of the most convenient in Windows; with its help you can easily and quickly run the vast majority of system utilities Windows. IN in this case This is done in two or three steps:

1. Press the Win+R keys
2. Write the regedit command in the window that opens
Write the regedit command in the window that opens
3. Click the OK button. That's it, the registry editor is running.

2. Using search in the Start menu

Here the complexity depends on the operating system, so in Windows 10 the search is located right on the taskbar, just write regedit and open the search result.

In Windows 7, you need to open the Start menu and enter the same query at the bottom.

In Windows 8.x, open the start menu and click on the magnifying glass in the upper right corner.

And then we enter search query. And launch the registry editor.

3. Using Windows Explorer

There is nothing complicated here either, open Explorer and go to the folder.

Scroll down and look for the regedit.exe file. When we found it, we launched it.

Using Task Manager
Here the principle is the same as in the first method, but more actions need to be done. Launch "Task Manager". For example, right-click on the taskbar. And select “File” → “Run new task”.

In the window that opens, enter regedit and click OK.

5. With command line
We already know how to launch the command line; in our context, the easiest way would be to use the method via context menu corner "Start". And in the window that opens, enter regedit

The result of any of the five methods will be the launch of the Windows Registry Editor window.

When I hear the phrase Windows registry, I imagine the icon of the regedit.exe program - 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 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 stripped-down versions of Windows 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.

Windows 8 is widely popular among PC users. But not everyone knows how to open the Registry Editor. There are several simple and effective ways to start editing it.

Detailed instructions

Option 1

A shortcut using the Win+R key combination will open the Run window.

Write the regedit command there and confirm the action with OK.

Option 2

We call the Task Manager with the well-known combination Ctrl+Alt+Del.

At the end of the procedure, enter the already familiar regedit request and confirm the action.

Option 3

If you hold the mouse cursor on the right side of the screen, the so-called Curtain will appear, which we will need. On it we look for the Search line.

Under the Applications item there is a Search line, where we write the word regedit.

All that remains is to activate the application.

Option 4

In the upper right corner of the My Computer window there is a Search line, which is what we will need. There you need to write the regedit command.

Among several shortcuts, you need to select the one that is saved in the C:\Windows directory.

Option 5

Go back to My Computer and open drive C.

Among the abundance of shortcuts, you need to find regedit with the Application type. Open it by double clicking.

These are the methods available to clearly see how to launch the registry. These instructions also apply to Windows 8.1. Each option only takes a few minutes.

In my articles, tips and notes, I often refer the reader to the Windows Registry Editor. Many of them involve intensive work with registry keys and values. I suddenly realized that not all of my readers had gotten their teeth into working with this program, and some had never even launched Registry Editor. Therefore, I decided to write a small guide to this program.

Table of contents:

What is Registry Editor

Registry Editor was historically created as a tool for users who needed to change Windows settings, which do not appear in user interface. The main function of this program is to view and change settings in system registry, that is, a set of special binary files that contain information about Windows configuration, and about almost all programs that are installed on your computer. Windows OS, and many programs (with the exception of those that are so-called “portable”, portable, in other words, do not require installation) store their settings in the registry.

How to launch Registry Editor

Method 1
Regardless Windows versions installed on your computer, this method will work:

Method 2
The Registry Editor executable is located in C:\Windows, which means you can open this folder in Explorer and run the regedit.exe file with a mouse click.

Alternatively, you can create a shortcut for Regedit.exe and place it in the Start menu/list Windows applications 8.x, to the folder

%ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

This will make Registry Editor visible in the results Windows search, and will also allow you to launch the application with one click of the mouse.

General view of the Registry Editor

The Registry Editor looks like this:

As you can see in the picture above, it consists of two panels:

the left one displays a hierarchical representation of the data structure, it is called sections (or keys);
the right panel displays parameters. They are name = data pairs and are stored inside keys.

What the Registry Editor shows

As I mentioned above, the editor shows us sections and options.

Sections are a virtual representation of data from several files that form registry database. You can see which files represent the registry on your computer if you go to this section:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\hivelist

Here you can see a list of files on your hard drive that store registry data. The data inside them, as mentioned above, has a hierarchical structure, and the Registry Editor shows it in the form of a “tree”. Tree roots (main keys) in general case represent a specific file to which data is provided access.

However, there are also virtual keys that appear in the Registry Editor as regular files, but in reality they are a representation of several files or even individual registry branches. They usually exist for backward compatibility. For example, HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG is a virtual view, HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT is also a virtual view that combines the current user's registry keys and system partitions.

Please note that some registry files do not appear in the Registry Editor window. For example, you will never see what is stored inside the SAM (Security Accounts Manager) file. In the registry editor it is represented by the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SAM\SAM branch and it is supposedly empty there. This is done for security reasons.

Registry Settings used by Windows OS and many third party applications for storing various configuration parameters and some user data. Parameter values are various types, but in general these are text values/strings, numeric values or binary values.

How to create a new registry key

To create a new key, right-click on the parent partition in the left pane and select New -> Section from the context menu.

You must name the created partition according to the requirements of the program for which you are creating it.

How to create a new parameter

To create a new parameter, you need to right-click

on the current section on the left
or
in the empty space in the right panel.

Select the appropriate type for the new parameter and enter its name. Double-click the parameter name to set its value.

How to become the owner of a section and get full access to it

Just as the concepts of "permissions" and "owner" apply to files and folders in file system NTFS, they also exist for registry keys. Since the era Windows Vista To this day, most registry keys that store OS settings are protected by restricted access rights so that they cannot be easily deleted or changed by the user. Sometimes you may need to change the data in such partitions, and to do this you need to be able to change the owner of the partition and gain full access to it. This is quite easy to do.

How to restore TrustedInstaller as partition owner

Almost all system registry keys in Windows Vista, 7 and 8 have the TrustedInstaller account as their owner. After editing partition permissions, you must return ownership rights for this account, otherwise operating system may not work correctly. To restore the TrustedInstaller property in Windows Vista, 7 and 8, enter NT Service\TrustedInstaller in the "Enter the names of the selected objects" field. Click OK.

How to change permissions on a registry key

After changing the owner of a registry key, you almost always have to change the access rights, otherwise you won't be able to change the parameter values. To do this, you must switch to the Permissions tab in the dialog box Additional options security.

Subsections may have so-called inherited permissions from its parent section. Alternatively, subkeys can also have explicit permissions that are different from the parent key.

In the first case, that is, if the permissions are inherited from the parent key, you must disable inheritance and copy the parent section's permissions to the current key in order to be able to change them. To do this in Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP, uncheck the "Add permissions that are inherited from parents" option and click the Add button in the confirmation dialog box.

After disabling inheritance, select the appropriate account user and click the button Change to change access rights.

Windows 8 has a special button to disable inheritance:

Permissions can be set in two ways: after disabling inheritance, you can set them only on the current key, or you can set permissions on the current key, and then apply them to all its subkeys. To do this, check the box Replace all permission entries of a child object with those inherited from this object. This action will push the permissions you set down the key hierarchy for all subkeys.

Registry Editor command line switches

Go to the desired registry section with one click

Option #1

Some time ago I created a utility called RegOwnershipEx, which allows you to gain full access to a registry key with one click. In addition, it allows you to go to the desired registry section. I recommend that you familiarize yourself with it.

RegOwnershipEx allows the following:

become the owner and gain full access to the selected registry section. There is a registry overview window for easy selection of a section.
favorites - for quick access to your favorite registry key. It is integrated with the Registry Editor's Favorites menu.
restore the permissions and ownership that you changed earlier. those. The program allows you to return rights to their original state.
"open in regedit" function - you can open the selected key in the registry editor. This is a very convenient option to quickly jump to a section by simply copying its name.
shortcuts for root partitions - you can use HKCU instead of HKEY_CURRENT_USER, HKLM instead of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and so on.
getting the registry path from the Windows clipboard.
command line argument "/j" to retrieve the path to the registry key from the Windows clipboard and quick transition to the registry editor.

All this is damn convenient!

Option 2

I have sketched out a simple script that will receive the contents of the clipboard, write it to the registry and open the registry editor. The following scenario is assumed: You are reading an article, it says “go to the registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion”. You select the path to the section, press CTRL+C and run the script. The Registry Editor opens in the desired location. .