Monday, April 30, 2001		Article

Managing registry in Windows ’98
By Vipul Verma

CRASH! It is the most-hated word in the world of modern technology. For the computer-users it is one of the most horrifying word. If you have been through the traumatic experience of your system crashing then you can very well imagine the agony of it. The wisdom lies in the principle of precaution rather than cure.

Normally, there could be two reasons for a system to crash

1) Hardware-related

2) Software-related

If failure is related to hardware, many a time it is beyond your control and all you can do to avoid it is handle hardware well and as prescribed. However, the crash due to failure of any software or operating system is avoidable provided you take adequate measures. One of the most important measures to be adopted is management of the computer’s registry.

The registry in Windows is basically a place for keeping such information as what hardware is attached, what system options have been selected, how computer memory is set up and what application programs are to be present when the operating system is started. It is basically like a replacement for the simpler INI (initialization) and configuration files used in the previous versions of Windows (DOS-based) systems. Registry is very important in a computer as it stores critical data about the system and programs installed. When you install or uninstall application programs they are added to the registry. Normally, there is a prescribed size but the registry of the computer grows beyond it and creates a lot of problems. It is not necessary that registry would give problems only in that case where it grows over a certain size. Too frequent installing and uninstalling, installation of incorrect version of a program and corruption of registry can also lead to fatal errors or even crash.

For all practical purposes it is advisable to keep a back-up copy of the registry, so that it could be utilised in the hour of crisis or in situation when the computer gives you some problems. For registry back up in Windows ’98, look out for Windows ’98 installation CD. There is a program on it that will allow you to back up the Windows ’98 registry. For using this program make a new folder on your hard disk and name it, as you want for keeping a backup of your registry. Now after putting Windows ’98 CD in the CD ROM, double-click on My Computer. Now right click on the drive that represents your CD ROM and then click Explore. Search the following folders- Other\ Misc\ CFGBACK\ . Here you will find the CFGBACK.EXE file. Copy this along with the Help file to the folder you created on your hard drive for taking a back up of registry. Now you can run the program to back up the registry.

However, by any chance if you lose the Windows ’98 CD, you need not worry as you can still take the necessary back up of your registry even without having the CD. The procedure for taking back up this way is also simple. Simply click on the Start button and then click on Run menu. Now, in the Open field type "regedit" and click OK. This will open the Registry editor Explorer window. Now open the registry menu and click Export Registry File. Once the dialog box appears, click All under Export range. Once you do it, navigate your way to the path you want to save it in and then name the file. Now click Save and your registry would be fully backed up.

Does it not sound very easy? Well it is surely an easy task to back up your registry and you should do it quite often so as to keep the back copy of your registry up-to-date. Similar to backing up your registry, the importing and restoring the registry is also easy in case of system failure or just when you committed a mistake in your operating system that could be causing problems. Therefore to restore (import) a backed-up Registry file as a first step locate your backed-up Registry file. Then double-click to open it. Remember you had created a separate folder for its back up. Now, once you are in the Registry Editor, click from the Registry menu Import Registry file, locate your Back up file and click Open.

Another important aspect of managing registry is compacting it. Normally, over a period of time due to regular installation and uninstallation of programs, the size of the registry goes on increasing. This situation is not desirable as it slows down the performance of your computer. It is very difficult to hold back your temptation of exploring new programs, especially the shareware versions of the programs, which adds to your computer registry significantly. But you can still maintain the performance of your system by compacting registry. By compacting the registry, you can actually contain it and make it small. The procedure for compacting the Windows ’98 registry is also very simple as you can easily do it by first clicking on the start button. Now click on Run in the drop-down menu. In the dialogue box, type regedit and click OK. This will open an Explorer-type Registry editor. Now from the registry menu, click Export Registry File. Export it to COMPACT.REG. Now exit Registry Editor and click on the Start button again and again click on the Run menu. Now in the Run dialogue box type REGEDIT/C COMPACT.REG and click OK. This procedure will compact your registry.

Sometimes due to some problem in your system, you may find difficulty in accessing the back up copy of your registry. Thus in order to be on the safer side, it is always better to take a print-out of your registry or maintain a hard copy of your registry along with soft copy.

However, since the registry is large so printing down the whole registry every time you take a back up may not be a sound idea. Thus you can take a printout of only some portion of the registry on take a back up. The procedure for printing the registry is also easy and involves only a few steps.

First of all click on the Start button and then click Run. Now in the Run dialogue box type regedit and click OK. This will open the Registry editor window. Now select the folder that you wish to print. While holding down the Ctrl key press P. Now choose the selected part and click OK. This will print only that portion of registry.

Though there is a lot you can do with registry like editing the registry yet that may require some level of expertise or reference material to do it correctly.