what is registry keys?

Answer 1

The Registry is split into a number of logical sections. These are generally known by the names of the definitions used to access them in the Windows API, which all begin "HKEY" (an abbreviation for "Handle to Key"); often, they are abbreviated to a three- or four-letter short name starting with "HK".

Each of these keys is divided into subkeys, which may contain further subkeys, and so on. Any key may contain values. These values can be:

* String Value
* Binary Value (0 and 1's)
* DWORD Value (numbers between 0 and 4,294,967,295 [232 – 1])
* Multi-String value
* Expandable String Value

Each key has a default value, which is in effect a value with the same name as the key. Registry keys and values are specified with a syntax similar to Windows' filenames, using backslashes to indicate levels of hierarchy. E.g. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows refers to the subkey "Windows" of the subkey "Microsoft" of the subkey "Software" of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE key.

The HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and HKEY_CURRENT_USER nodes have a similar structure to each other; applications typically look up their settings by first checking for them in "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Vendor's name\Application's name\Version\Setting name", and if the setting is not found looking instead in the same location under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE key. When writing settings back, the reverse approach is used — HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE is written first, but if that cannot be written to (which is usually the case if the logged in user is not an administrator), the setting is stored in HKEY_CURRENT_USER instead.

Answer 2

The simple answer to this question is the registry is the part of windows operating system which keeps all the configurations of different users... and it is composed of different keys with values

Answer 3

I not sure, but, when they get messed up you have major trouble. This the simple explain. Above is a Wiki deep thought. But, they Basically tell the computer how everything work and it very important!

Answer 4

Your question should be "what are registry keys?"

Answer 5

A windows file with the extention reg.