Tweaking the Windows 7 Registry

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October 25th, 2009

When you change the desktop background using Control Panel’’s Personalization window, the next time you start your computer, how does Windows 7 know which image or color you selected? If you change your video display driver, how does Windows 7 know to use that driver at startup and not the original driver loaded during setup? In other words, how does Windows 7 remember the various settings and options either that you”ve selected yourself or that are appropriate for your system?

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All the direct work you do with the Registry happens inside the reasonably friendly confines of a program called the Registry Editor, which enables you to view, modify, add, and delete Registry settings. It also has a search feature to help you find settings and export and import features that enable you to save settings to and from a text file. To launch the Registry Editor, select Start, type regedit into the Search box, and then press Enter. When the User Account Control dialog box shows up, enter your credentials to continue.
Figure 12.1 shows the Registry Editor window that appears. (Note that your Registry Editor window might look different if someone else has used the program previously. Close all the open branches in the left pane to get the view shown in Figure 12.1.)
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