Basic Registry Editing in Windows XP/Vista

Editing registry key can be very complicated and highly risky. Please do NOT try this unless you are absolutely positive that you might mess up the system, and as always, it’s highly recommended that you do a backup of the registry (or whole system) before making any modifications.

Since it would take hours to talk about the registry, I am just going through the very basic steps. You can always refer to the Microsoft website or books for full details. Here’s the most common steps you might ever need to know for basic troubleshooting:

For Windows XP:

1. In Windows XP, from Start, and then click on Run.
2. Type “regedit“, then click on OK.
3. Now it opens the Registry Editor.
4. You can easily navigate through the subkey if you know what you are looking for. Or, you can press “Ctrl + F” to locate the subkey that contains the value you want to edit. (F3 to Find Next)

For Windows Vista:

1. From Start, then type “regedit“.

2. Click on “regedit” on the search result to open the registry editor in Windows Vista.
3. Step 3 & 4 are the same as Windows XP (see above).