The Structure of the Registry
There are five primary, or root, branches of the Registry, each containing a specific portion of the information stored therein. These root keys can't be deleted, renamed, or moved, because they are the basis for the organization of the Registry. They are:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTThis branch contains the information that comprises your Windows file types. See the discussion of file types in Chapter 4 for details on the structure of most of the entries in this branch. A few special keys here, such as
CLSID(short for Class ID), contain "registered" components of Windows and your installed applications. The contents ofHKEY_CLASSES_ROOTare generally easy to edit, but it's best not to mess with anything in theCLSIDbranch, because almost none of it is in plain English.This entire branch is a symbolic link,[1] or "mirror," of
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classesbut is displayed separately in this branch for clarity and easy access.HKEY_USERSThis branch contains a sub-branch for the currently logged-in user, the name of which is a long string of numbers, which will look something like this:
S-1-5-21-1727987266-1036259444-725315541-500
This number is the SID (security identifier), a unique ID for each user on your system. See Chapter 8 for more information on SIDs.
While it may sound like a good idea to edit the contents of this branch, you should instead use the
HKEY_CURRENT_USERbranch described later, which is a symbolic link, or "mirror," of this branch. No ...
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Read now
Unlock full access