How To Edit Windows Registry
Have y'all always experienced an "oops" moment while editing the registry, similar, irresolute the wrong value? And when you restart your figurer, Windows fails to outset? Lucky for you lot, you can still edit or repair the registry by using an offline registry editor.
As well, in situations like removing stubborn or locked registry entries due to possible malware infection, editing the registry offline may be your last resort. Continue reading this tutorial and learn how to edit the Windows registry offline.
Come up on, and let's see what else you can intermission! 😉
Prerequisites
To follow along with this tutorial, exist sure y'all have the following.
- A calculator running on Windows 10, Windows Server 2016, and above. This article will be using a Windows 10 version 1909.
- A copy of the Windows installation media. Either a DVD or USB installation media should work.
Offline Registries: Understanding and Editing
Ane pop way to edit the Windows registry is to apply the Regedit utility. This utility is a graphical registry editor that typically allows you to edit the Windows registry while it'south in use. But, yous tin also utilise Regedit to edit an offline registry.
An offline registry is a Windows registry that's stored in files (one for each registry hive) that Windows is non currently using. Each file is stored in specific locations, as shown in the tabular array below.
| Registry Hive | File Path |
| HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SAM | %WINDIR%\system32\config\SAM |
| HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM | %WINDIR%\system32\config\SYSTEM |
| HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE | %WINDIR%\system32\config\SOFTWARE |
| HKEY_USERS.DEFAULT | %WINDIR%\system32\config\DEFAULT |
| HKEY_CURRENT_USER | %USERPROFILE%\NTUSER.DAT |
To edit an offline registry, y'all can use Regedit inside of a special Windows operating surroundings called the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE).
While tertiary-party offline registry editors exist, WinRE and Regedit are Microsoft's officially supported tools. Additionally, WinRE has congenital-in support for UEFI firmware and Bitlocker, which is not available in near 3rd-party tools.
Opening the Command Prompt in WinRE
To edit a Windows registry offline, you must first book into WinRE and open the command prompt from there. To do that, you have a couple of different ways depending on if y'all can become into Windows now and if you take Windows installation media or not.
The easiest and typical method of booting into WinRE is from the Windows power carte du jour. This method applies only if Windows is all the same bootable or if you can notwithstanding at least reach the login screen where yous'll take access to the power card.
Follow the steps below to kick to WinRE using the power menu.
Notation: This WinRE boot method volition only work if your Windows system drive (e.yard., drive C:) is not encrypted with Bitlocker. If the system drive is encrypted, skip to booting into WinRE with installation media.
1. If y'all're logged in to Windows, press WIN+L on your keyboard to lock the screen.
ii. On the lower-correct corner of the login screen, click the power button. Adjacent, concord downwardly the SHIFT key on your keyboard and click Restart.
three. At the warning prompt saying that you could lose unsaved piece of work, click Restart anyway. The reckoner will restart and automatically boot into the WinRE.
Note: If the computer fails to boot to Windows x in two to 3 consecutive times, the next kick will enter WinRE automatically.
iv. After the computer restarts, you'll see the WinRE menu like to the screenshot below. On this folio, click Troubleshoot.
five. On the Troubleshoot page, click Avant-garde options.
Under the Advanced options page, click Command Prompt.
7. In the Command Prompt window, click your account name to log in.
8. Now, enter your business relationship'due south countersign and click Continue.
Using Windows Installation Media
In cases where Windows is not bootable, another pick to access WinRE is booting with the Windows installation media. Whether y'all have a CD/DVD or USB installation media, WinRE also comes preloaded with information technology.
The step-past-footstep procedure beneath demonstrates booting into WinRE using the Windows 10 installation media. Depending on your Windows installation version, the screenshots or steps may differ from what you will see in this example.
1. Insert your Windows installation media (CD, DVD, or USB) and then turn off the figurer.
2. Ability on your estimator and brand sure that the estimator boots into the installation media.
3. In one case the computer boots into the Windows setup, click Next.
4. On the next screen, click Repair your figurer.
five. Next, on the Cull an choice card, click Troubleshoot.
6. On the Advanced options card, click Command prompt.
seven. If one or more drives in your computer are Bitlocker-encrypted, you will see the prompt to enter the recovery central similar to the screenshot below. If the drive containing your offline registry files is encrypted, enter the recovery key and click Continue to unlock the drive.
Without unlocking the encrypted drive, you will not take admission to the offline registry files.
Finding the Windows Operating Organisation Drive Letter
Now that you lot've booted your computer to the WinRE and have the command prompt open, you can now start using Regedit every bit an offline registry editor.
On a typical Windows installation, you tin can find the operating arrangement on drive C. But inside WinRE, drive C is assigned to the System Reserved Partition (SRP). The SRP is a hidden division that yous can find immediately earlier the partition that houses Windows.
First, you have to decide in which bulldoze the Windows installation resides. Y'all can do so past listing the calculator'due south Boot Configuration Database (BCD). The BCD contains system and operating arrangement startup configuration, including the division that houses the operating organization itself.
To list the boot configuration data, run the command beneath in the command prompt.
Nether the Windows Kicking Loader section, look for the osdevice holding value. This value indicates which drive alphabetic character has the Windows OS installation. In the instance below, the Windows Bone is on drive D.
Loading, Editing, and Unloading the Offline Registry
In the previous section, you've determined that Windows resides on the drive D in WinRE. At present you can fire up the offline registry editor and load the offline registry hives for editing. To load the offline registry hives, follow the steps beneath.
ane. Open the built-in Windows registry editor by running the command beneath in the control prompt.
Now you should come across the familiar Registry Editor window like the screenshot below. Since you're in WinRE, the registry hives you're seeing are the WinRE registry and non your Windows registry. You take to manually load the hives you lot want to edit, which you volition do in the side by side step.
2. Next, load the registry hive you want to edit. Loading a hive means opening the offline registry file from the Windows OS drive, which will then become visible in the offline registry editor.
To do and then, showtime, click to select the primal where y'all will load the registry hive. You can merely load hives under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and HKEY_USERS keys. The instance below selects the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE key.
three. After selecting the key, click File —> Load hive on the menu bar.
iv. On the Load Hive window, navigate to D:\Windows\System32\config.
Think that the Windows installation is in drive D in this example, as the
bcdeditcommand shown previously.
Next, select the registry hive file that you want to load. Once you lot've selected the file, click Open. The example below will open the SOFTWARE file, which loads the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE registry hive.
5. At the next prompt, enter the Key Name you want to assign to the offline registry file and click OK. For clarity, you are not creating a new key. Instead, you're only setting a label or name to the offline registry hive.
Feel free to use any proper name that you call back would make sense. The example below uses the name OFFLINE_SOFTWARE.
Back on the Registry Editor window, you tin can now see the offline registry that you've loaded into your offline registry editor.
At this betoken, yous can echo the same steps to load other offline registry files if needed.
Subsequently you lot've loaded the offline registry hive, yous tin can now edit the registry in the same mode that yous would edit the registry while logged in to Windows.
6. Next, create a new central with the proper noun ATA_WinRE_Regedit. To do so, right-click on the offline registry you want to edit —> click New —> Key. Lastly, type in the name of the new key and printing Enter.
7. One time you've completed editing the registry, unload the offline registry hive. To exercise then, (one) click to select the offline registry cardinal, click (ii) File —> (3) Unload hive. Lastly, on the confirmation prompt, click (four) Aye.
8. Now, shut the offline registry editor and control prompt windows.
nine. Now, plough off your computer or kicking to Windows.
Verifying your Offline Registry Changes
Once you've restarted your computer and successfully logged in to Windows, the next step is confirming that the changes you made in the offline registry persist. Follow the steps below.
Commencement, open up the registry editor. To do so, printing WIN+R on your keyboard to open the Run dialog. Next, blazon in regedit in the Open box and press Enter or click OK.
Once you lot're in the Registry Editor window, navigate to the hive you edited previously and confirm that it exists. In this case, the item to verify is the ATA_Offline_Regedit key under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE hive.
Recollect that when yous loaded the offline registry hive into a new key while in WinRE, you assigned a label named OFFLINE_SOFTWARE. That fundamental was but temporary while in WinRE and does not carry into the active registry in Windows.
Decision
Knowing how to edit the registry offline can salvage your bacon, especially if y'all've made a error and corrupted the registry. Whether the reckoner still boots up or non, or if the bulldoze is encrypted, you can still use Regedit to edit the Windows registry offline.
Apart from editing the registry offline using Regedit, do y'all call back you tin can fill-in and import the registry offline too? What other actions practice you remember are possible to practice with the offline registry?
How To Edit Windows Registry,
Source: https://adamtheautomator.com/offline-registry-editor/
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