restoring the Windows registry

The Windows registry contains the data of your settings and configuration and can sometimes be used to solve problems. Sometimes, because playing with the registry may be a very powerful way to control and customize your Windows--but is not the ultimate troubleshooting tool. (By the way, if you want to customize, try the easy way first: use Tweak UI, on the Windows98 cd in Tools/Reskit/Powertoys. To install, right-click Tweakui.inf. Windows95 users can download it at Microsoft, where you can also find other 'powertoys'.)

It is important though, to maintain the integrity of the registry, because it can get corrupted and cause severe problems. The thing to do is to act quickly: if you have changed something in your configuration and suddenly get a flood of error messages or are unable to enter Windows, it might be solved by restoring the registry you had before the changes were made. The program Registry Checker (scanregw.exe, included with Windows; scanreg.exe is the DOS version) automatically makes one backup of the registry every day you use your computer, and saves the backups for five days. In DOS mode, you can type SCANREG /RESTORE to see a list of the backups and choose to make one of them the current registry, preferably the most recent one of which you are sure it isn't corrupted. After rebooting, your problems may be over.

Of course, some problems don't show up untill it's too late to restore a non-corrupted registry. You could change the amount of backups that Registry Checker keeps up to 99 days (you can do this by changing the 'x' in 'MaxBackupCopies=x', a line you will find in Scanreg.ini, located in the Windows folder). But then you would still have to know precisely when the registry got corrupted. This is why the registry should be backed up regularly, which means: every time before you make changes. 'Changes' are: installing a program, removing a program, updating Windows or its applications, and changing your hardware configuration. You should of course always make a backup before editing the registry.

To backup the registry, click the Run item in the Start menu, type 'regedit', choose Registry and export the registry file. This will generate a .reg file, which you can save to any place you want. You can 'restore' the registry by importing this file.

You can also force Registry Checker to backup the registry by running SCANREGW. Registry Checker will check your registry for faults and ask you if you want to make a new backup (backups by Registry Checker are stored in .cab files that are located in Windows\Sysbckup).

You should, by the way, as little as possible use REGEDIT, the Windows registry editing tool, which has no 'undo' feature--use a special program if you want to edit the registry. Advanced tools to backup, check, restore and edit the registry are included in Norton Utilities. If you really want to know the ins and outs of the Windows registry, you need The Windows 98 Registry Handbook.


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Restoring the Windows Registry