The Windows Registry

Since Windows 16 bit, version 3.11, felt the need to group all operating system settings in a single register, as all those configurations were scattered in the sea of fame. Ini files, which were multiplied by appropriate by application installations. Since version 95, in fact we have a single log can be edited with powerful regedit and everything is contained in two files: user.dat and system.dat that if they break will be immediately restored from their backups. At one point, another problem arose, however, each installation of software was going to write a lot of keys and data in the register, so as to form a huge confusion. Thus were born tools to clean it: you write to every virus that suggest a popup window, others that promise quick clean, then that is revealed only by cleaning dirt is not important. If someone attacker would not be seen within this babel of keys will succeed easily.
Today there is the possibility to set restore points and if something is wrong you recover your system from a certain point, when it is hoped the register was empty of dirt. In the past, twelve years ago, with the advent of the Internet, I have witnessed a war between good and evil which I will be infinite, those who want to create disorder in the register and those who want to clean. It is therefore necessary to know roughly how it is structured this mammoth container, which is complicated to understand, but retains its own logic.

The highest parts of the Windows registry are the five keys, we will see the first three, because the others are unattractive:

• HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT – found any association between the extensions and file types, then each extension recorded in the system there is a default program and other secondary that can handle that file type.
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER – there are all the current user’s settings, each one inside your computer has a copy of the owner and affects only about himself.
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE – here we have all of the hardware and software settings in the system, well then you understand how important is that.

Thus we see the subkeys of that most important main key: HARDWARE for the component of the system drivers and their settings. Among the subkeys to mention, we have software, that also exists in HKEY_CURRENT_USER, but here is a system-wide, within which there are software companies. What do you think there is within Microsoft? Ok, Windows. Here we are most important key, CurrentVersion, which is the heart of the startup settings of the system and more specifically on the Run and RunOnce key, a more advanced autoexec.bat, remember in DOS? Here the programs are launched for every user and not just one as was the case for HKEY_CURRENT_USER. In CurrentVersion key we also have the Uninstall key in which are recorded programs that appear in Add/Remove Programs of the control panel.
There are many other keys in the Windows registry, but we’re not here to describe everything as it would take a lot of article pages. This post just wanted to explain my keys that control the initiation of programs automatically starting to clog the memory and those that are used to uninstall programs, in order to eliminate them from the control panel, if an error occurs during uninstallation . These problems are those for which users come to me more often for assistance.
If you want more information on the Windows registry you can write your put the question in the comments, certainly I respond to everyone.