Managing The Windows 2000 Registry

Learning the RegEdit Interface

I have a weakness for power tools--the more powerful, the better! One thing I’ve learned is that it’s a good idea to spend some time getting accustomed to a new tool before starting a real project with it. This break-in period helps me get familiar with how the tool works, teaches me how it feels as I use it to saw, drill, or whatever, and gives me some confidence that I won’t screw up whatever I’m working on.

In the same vein, allow me to present the user interface for RegEdit. As you read through this section and its successors, you’ll gain an understanding of how RegEdit looks, feels, and works, but the best way to cement that knowledge is to launch it and experiment: practice moving around, searching for things, and exploring the Registry. Even after you’ve mastered the skills needed to administer the Registry, you’ll still find RegEdit’s search abilities to be quite useful in your everyday administration.

Don’t I Know You from Somewhere?

If you’ve ever used Windows Explorer (or even the old-style Windows File Manager), you’ll feel instantly comfortable with RegEdit ’s interface (shown in Figure 4-1). The application’s window is divided vertically. The left pane (which I’ll call the key pane from now on) shows a tree representing the Registry’s hierarchy, while the right side (the value pane) shows the values associated with whatever key is selected in the key pane. You can adjust the relative widths of the two panes by dragging the gray bar that ...