What is Regedit? (Registry Editor)
Regedit, or Registry Editor, is a program that is included with your Windows operating system that allows you to view and change the contents of your computers registry. Each computer operating system has a registry that contains entries. These entires store your system settings for installed software and hardware, user information, non-operating system information, and installed program operation info.
The registry contains data entries for programs that exist that make your computer run, as well as entries for information you add to the computer. When you install a program, an entry goes into the computer registry. When you make changes to your computer settings, an entry goes into the registry. Any changes that are made are stored in the registry of your computer.
Over time, your computer registry can become overloaded. This can cause what is known as registry bloat, and it can have negative effects on how your computer runs and operates. While you can run a registry cleaner program, you can also use regedit, to go in and view and manually change the registry in your computer.
Before you make any changes to your computer registry using regedit, you should perform a registry backup. This way, should the changes you make have a negative affect on your computer system, you can do a system restore and restore your computer to a back up point. This is a good idea whenever you make any type of changes to your computer operating system.
To use the Regedit program, you will need to click on the “Start” button on your bottom tool bar. When the window pops up, click the “Run” button. A window will appear for you to enter text into. Into this window, type the word regedit. The Windows Registry Editor will then open and you can begin the process of editing your registry.
Regedit is a nifty little feature for those that know how to use it. It can be quite complicated to use however, so those that are unfamiliar with the process should avoid doing this manually and instead use a registry cleaner program. Using regedit when you don’t know what you are doing can actually cause more harm than good in some cases. If you are unfamiliar with computer programming, you can easily delete entires and files that are necessary for your computer to run properly.
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