Windows Vista in a Nutshell

Adding and Deleting Registry Keys and Values

The Registry Editor, as mentioned earlier, is the primary tool for viewing, modifying, and deleting data in the Registry. And as you’ll see later in this chapter, it also allows you to conveniently import and export data (via Registry patches), which you can think of as another form of data entry.

Basic data entry in the Registry Editor is fairly simple. In order to type data, you must first create a value to hold it. Depending on your goal, you may also need to create a new key in which to place the value.

To create a new key or value, use Edit → New. The key or value then appears within the currently selected key, with the name New Key or New Value #1, respectively. A new string value will have the null string as its value; a new binary value will show the following message in parentheses: “(zero length binary value).” A new DWORD value will show up as zero: 0x00000000 (0). You can then edit that value (see later in this chapter) to change it. New keys aren’t created empty, either. They all contain the (Default) value described in the preceding section.

To delete a key or value, select it and click Edit → Delete, or simply press the Delete key. But be warned, there’s no undelete, so you might want to first write out the branch containing the key you’re about to delete as a .reg file (see "Backing Up the Registry" and "Exporting and Importing Registry Data with Patches,” later in this chapter). Or, you can use Edit → Rename to rename the ...