Today the topic is dedicated to the eight. As you already know, in this OS, the graphical interface has been greatly changed, and it was difficult for even experienced users to find familiar elements. For example, due to the reworking of the start menu, not everyone could, and many such situations arose. To facilitate the actions of users, consider in detail, how to enter the Windows 8 registry 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 key 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", then you will be taken to the home screen. In this area, move all the way to the right, then click the magnifying glass icon, which is located near the power control (shutdown) button.
Note: You do not need to go to the start screen, just press Win + W where you are now.
You will see a panel with a search form, where you will need to enter regedit.exe. After successful entry, click the Enter key or select Registry Editor from the list that appears below.
If you see a UAC window click "yes". Thus, you will be able to enter the registry on Windows 8.
In order not to enter the name of the editor file each time, I propose to move the shortcut of the regedit file to visible places. While entering the file name, when regedit appears in the list, right-click on it and select one of the following:
- Dock to Start Screen - Windows 8 Registry Editor is docked as a tile to the work area of the start screen.
- Pin to taskbar - The most productive of the two, a registry shortcut is placed on the taskbar.
The second method is to click on the context menu item. Windows 7 does not provide this feature, so in the previous article we added this item manually. On an empty space on the desktop, right-click. In the open menu, select the item called "Registry Editor".
In the third way it is necessary. This is done with the keyboard shortcut Windows + R, after which the familiar regedit.exe construction is entered into the line, then Enter or OK is pressed.
After completing 1 of 3 recommendations, you can enter the Windows 8 registry in a convenient way for you. All the described recommendations can be used equally, and there is no clear leader. Sometimes a picture emerges that after trying all the steps, the Windows 8 registry editor does not open, showing an error, which, follow the link to fix the problem.
Registry is a repository of all parameters and settings of the operating system. Editing the registry windows 7, 8, etc. carried out when you need to quickly change something in the system settings.
But you should only do this if you are confident of success, otherwise you can provoke a software or operating system failure.
Quick opening
This method is universal for all versions of operating systems, from "seven" and higher. In addition, in this way, opening 7 will be the fastest. It is carried out through the window for entering the Run commands. For some users, it is placed on the main start menu or start screen. If it is not there, then you will have to call the window additionally. To call the console in this way, repeat the algorithm:
- Hold down the Win button and the R button at the same time;
- Regardless of the type of OS, a small window will appear with the name "Run" and a line to enter the command;
Enter in the field regedit
- Press OK or Enter;
- The required window will open.
The desired window may not open immediately. First, the system may ask you to confirm your administrative rights. Click on the confirmation of rights and start using the console. This method is the simplest and fastest, and therefore it is better to remember the command.
The editor itself looks like thisRun through Search
In order to call the registry in windows 7, you can use the search for folders and system files on your computer. To search, do the following:
- Open the Start menu by left-clicking on the button in the lower left corner of the screen;
- At the bottom of the expanded list, in the left block, there is a line for entering text (search query);
- Type regedit into it and hit Search or Enter.
Most often this is one necessary file.There will not be many results for giving.
But if there are several results with this name in the output, choose the exe format and marked with a blue cube icon. This method of entering the windows 7 registry editor is popular among users.
How to open the registry editor in Windows 8.1
The menu and all the design of Windows 8.1 differs significantly from Windows 7. Of course, for those users who did not configure the function of saving the old menu for convenience using special utilities. Therefore, it will not work to get into the Windows 8 registry through Search in the same way as on the "seven".
- To find the line for entering a search query, go to the start screen of the operating system;
- Start typing the required command on the keyboard. It is not necessary to set the mouse pointer to any specific place;
- When you enter from the keyboard, a search window will automatically open with what you typed;
The results will show you the same program as in the previous case. By clicking on it, you can enter the Windows 8 registry. In the same way, the registry opens on the new "top ten". But sometimes the search on it does not work and you need to use other methods.
Opening a file manually
This way to enter the registry windows xp, 7, 8, 8.1, 10 is universal, since it works on any OS version, even old ones. It is understandable even for inexperienced users, but it takes a lot of time. For implementation, go to the shortcut to open the registry by clicking from folder to folder or through Explorer.
The location of the shortcut varies depending on the OS version and settings. More often, you can find the registry in windows 8 by following the path Computer - Drive C - Windows - System32.
You open the same file as when launching from search, but instead of an automated search in the OS, go through the path to the program manually.
- If the OS is 64 - bit, then the path changes, it looks like My Computer - Drive C - Windows - SysWOW64. Another reason for possible differences is the presence or absence of disk partitioning and others. So the path is different, but regedit.exe is in the main system files folder. Sometimes it's even the Windows folder itself on the C drive.
- In addition, if you did not use the search in Windows 7 as in the second method, but opened the folder containing the program, you can see that it contains regedt32.exe. This is also a registry available on 64 - bit OS. Any of the two registers can be edited.
- In extremely rare cases, the registry does not open in windows 7 when located at this address. Or it may not be in the folder at all. It's on the computer, but you need to find it. An alternative storage location is the WinSxS folder in the Windows directory. Sometimes there are other alternative storage locations for the shortcut to open the editor.
- The contents of such folders are numerous, and therefore, in order to open the registry in windows xp or another version of the OS in this way, you will need to spend time searching. Use sorting, although this is unlikely to speed up the process. Therefore, this method is alternative and is used only when the search does not work in windows 7.
The registry is a large database that stores all the parameters necessary for the normal operation of the operating system. You can view it through the registry editor, which is available in Windows. Any user can enter it if his 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 a whole registry branch, then this may not have the best effect on the computer's operation.
And yet, if this happened, let's figure out what are the ways to restore the Windows 7 and Windows 8 registry for normal computer operation.
Using a backup
As you probably guessed, this method is not for everyone. If you previously created backup copies of the registry through "File" - "Export" - read on, if not - go to the next method.
So, you have a backup copy. Press the combination Win + R, the "Run" window will open. In the "Open" field, 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 and click "Open".
Wait for the files to be copied.
Using System Restore
System restore 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, and so on.
Consider first, how to restore the registry if the operating system boots... In Windows 7 go to "Start" - "Control Panel".
Here we are interested in the item "Recovery".
In the next window, click "Start 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 numbers ?! - choose her. By clicking Find Affected Programs, you can see which programs will be removed as a result of the recovery. Click "Next".
We confirm the rollback of the system to the selected state by clicking "Finish".
All data, including the registry, will correspond to the state that was at the time of the creation of the selected restore point.
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 actions will need to be performed the same as described above.
If the OS won't start
Repair the registry if the computer does not turn on you can too. In the Windows 7 operating system, when the computer boots up, press the F8 button at intervals of 1 second. A window will appear "Additional download options"... In it, use the arrows to select the item "Troubleshooting computer problems".
In the next window, select your language and click "Next".
Select your account, it is better to have administrator rights, then enter the password, if you have it set when you log in, and click "OK".
The following window should appear, select the item "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, then you can press F8 or Shift + F8 when booting, but the window for additional download options is unlikely to appear. It is best to use a system recovery disc or a 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 repair Windows 8. Everything is described in detail there. The following window should appear. Then follow the path: "Diagnostics" - "System Restore", and select the desired restore point.
Through the 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. There is also the RegBack folder, which stores backup copies of all registry branches. They are updated by the system automatically, depending on the settings, every 5-10 days.
We need to do the following: delete the DEFAULT, SAM, SECURITY, SYSTEM, SOFTWARE files that are 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 it will be necessary to replace the files responsible for its operation. Therefore, you need to use additional boot parameters and open a command prompt.
In Windows 7, press F8 when booting the system. 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 run as administrator.
In Windows 8, you can open the command prompt using the combination. This is detailed in the article: Windows 8 Safe Mode. Read the point: go to safe mode using the combination Shift + restart. 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: go to safe mode using a system recovery disk (you can create it on any computer with Windows 8 installed).
So, we launched the command line. Now we enter the following commands line by line there. Press Enter at the end of each line. First, let's create a badreg folder on the system drive, copy all the files of our non-working registry into it. Then we can safely delete the DEFAULT, SAM, SECURITY, SYSTEM, SOFTWARE files from the config folder, because we have copies of them. Finally, 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 reboot.
I hope one of the ways will help you restore the registry in the Windows 7 or 8 operating system.
Rate article:
(3
estimates, average: 3,67
out of 5)
Webmaster. Higher education in the specialty "Information Security" .. Author of most articles and lessons of computer literacy
Similar posts
Discussion: 16 comments
Most likely, the folders DEFAULT, SAM, SECURITY, SYSTEM, SOFTWARE are located in a different path, but not c: \ windows \ system32 \ config.
To answer
And what to do?
To answer
You need to find out the path to the specified files. Do you have 32-bit or 64-bit installed?
I enter the commands in the line as shown, for some reason it writes: "the system could not find this path", what should I do?
To answer
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 done only if you are confident in your actions.
To enter the registry to change Windows settings, you need to open a window with a tree of its directories. There are two options, the first click "Start" - "Run" or the second, the key combination "Win + R". A small window will open on the screen with a command line, in it you need to register 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 and system software settings and, if necessary, change the settings for its operation. 
Let's start with the most recent Windows 10, and consider two options for accessing the registry.
Launching Registry Editor - Method 1 for Windows 10
Press the "Start" button with the left mouse button (or the "Windows" key on the keyboard);
When the "Start" menu opens, type the command "regedit" on the keyboard (without the quotes);
At the top of the search menu under the "Best match" item will appear "REGEDIT - Run command", click on this item with the left mouse button;
If a window appears to confirm the launch of the registry editor, click "Yes";
You will see the "Registry Editor" window, 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 with the right mouse button (or the keyboard shortcut Win + X);
In the menu that appears, select "Run" (these two steps can be replaced with one keyboard shortcut 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 proceed to make changes.
You can clearly see how to enter the Winows 10 registry in this video:
How to open the registry in Windows 8 / 8.1
To start 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 the Start button, so in the first step of the first method, press the Windows key, and then everything is according to the instructions above.
A detailed video instruction on how to enter the Windows 8 Registry Editor (8.1):
How to open the registry in Windows 7
To open 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 "Programs" label on the "regedit" label;
Select the answer "Yes" to the request for confirmation of the launch.
Launching Registry Editor - Method 2 for Windows 7
Press the Win + R key combination on the keyboard (hold down the 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 ways to enter 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 item "Run" (both steps can be replaced by the combination Win + R)
In the window "Run the program" write the command "regedit" (without quotes) and click "OK";
Opening the registry in XP
Launching Registry Editor - Method 2 for Windows XP (and More)
Open the explorer (you can use the Win + X keyboard shortcut);
Go to the "C:" drive;
Open the Windows folder;
Find the "regedit" file and run it.
And, of course, a video version of opening the registry editor in Windows XP:
The second method is suitable for all listed versions of Windows. Moreover, you can cheat a little:
Once you get to the "regedit" file, you can create a shortcut on the desktop and further greatly simplify access to the Registry Editor.
Launching the editor There are at least 4 ways to invoke this utility:
Through the "Explorer".
Using search
Through the service "Run". Command line. There is no need to describe all of them, since some require a certain level of knowledge and skills to use them, but it would be inappropriate not to mention them. So let's get started.
Through the conductor
Open "My Computer", go to the system drive (often C) and enter in the search bar: regedit. After some time it will take for the machine to search, the same editor will be offered in the main part of the window. All that remains is to open it and start performing the required actions. to the content.
Through search
Hover the mouse cursor over the right panel, where we select "Search" and set the same command as in the previous paragraph: regedit. After that, double-click to activate the application itself. The utility itself looks like this: READ ALSO What is a virtual machine for Windows 8 and how to start it to the table of contents.
Through the "Run" command
This option involves calling an intermediate component. We use the combination + [R] on the keyboard, after which we enter in the field the already familiar Regedit.exe or without the extension ".exe" and click.
1. Launching 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 the help of it you can easily and quickly run the absolute majority of Windows system utilities. In this case, this is done in two or three steps:
1. Hold down the Win + R keys
2. We write in the opened command regedit
We write in the regedit command that opens
3. Click the OK button. That's it, the registry editor is running.
2.By search in the Start menu
Here, the complexity depends on the operating system, so in Windows 10, the search is 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 of it.
In Windows 8.x, open the start menu and click on the magnifying glass in the upper right corner.
And then we enter the search query. And launch the registry editor.
3.Using Windows Explorer
There is also nothing difficult here, open the explorer and go to the folder.
Scroll down and look for the file regedit.exe. When found - launch.
Using the task manager
Here the principle is the same as in the first method, but more actions need to be done. Launch the "Task Manager". For example, right-clicking on the taskbar. And select "File" → "Start new task".
In the window that opens, enter regedit and click OK.
5.Using the command line
We already know how to start the command line; in our context, it will be easiest to use the method through the context menu of the "Start" corner. And in the window that opens, enter regedit
Any of the five methods will launch 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 the registry really is. I think many Windows users have heard about it, but not many have seen 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 disk. In this case, 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 to which the type "File" is indicated will be the same registry files.
Another place where the 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 (key), because the settings for all profiles are unique. To open your profile, press the key combination WIN + R, in the window that appears, type% userprofile% and click OK. These files will most likely 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 the logs needed to recover from 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 start it by pressing WIN + R and typing regedit. In general, Microsoft does not recommend making changes to Windows settings directly through the registry, but using the existing user interface of the operating system. If you run regedit, then I recommend not to make any changes, but only to familiarize yourself with the structure of the database.
Since all Windows settings are stored in the registry, in the absence of that very 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.
