home Chimneys How to open the Windows Registry Editor. Three ways to open the Windows Registry Editor Windows 8 Desktop Registry

How to open the Windows Registry Editor. Three ways to open the Windows Registry Editor Windows 8 Desktop Registry

Windows 8 has a new system recovery feature - Refresh Your PC. It has two application scenarios, which I will talk about today. You'll also learn about the technology behind this exciting opportunity.

Along with updating your PC without deleting files (Refresh Your PC), Windows 8 has the ability to delete all data and reinstall Windows (Reset Your PC). It formats the system partition (and optionally all partitions) and installs the system completely, which is not very interesting. Her sister is more flexible and therefore much more attractive. One of its trump cards is the ability to create a rollback image yourself!

Refresh Your PC and console function recimg utility only available on Windows 8 and 8.1. These features are not present in Windows 10, but it does have an old backup from Windows 7.

Windows Recovery Tools Comparison Chart

Due to the variety of means Windows recovery, I have prepared a comparison table. In it you will find short description recovery methods and mechanisms of their work, as well as links to detailed articles about each of the means.

What is PC update without deleting files (Refresh Your PC)

The step-by-step instructions that you will find below are very primitive. It is much more important to understand how to use the new feature and what results it will lead to.

Methods of application in practice

Updating your PC without deleting files(and this is exactly the term they decided to use in the Russian OS) - this is a reinstallation of the system. It can be done using:

Installation disk. In this case, personal files are saved, as well as applications from the store (but that’s all!). After recovery, the OS itself will be clean.
Factory look. In this case, only personal files and store applications are saved. After restoration, the system itself will be the same as it was when you first turned on the PC.
WIM image created in advance by the recimg utility. In this case, the operating system returns and installed programs(but not their parameters!) to the state at the time of creation of this image.

If there is no image, Refresh Your PC is a convenient, but not the only solution for restoring Windows. Obviously, here Microsoft is focusing on maximum simplicity and high speed of reinstallation, as well as the low value of regular (“desktop”) programs for tablet users.

Difference between Refresh Your PC and reinstalling a system on top of an existing one

Typically, reinstalling Windows is resorted to when there are no backup copies. In this case, you can also reinstall the system on top of an already installed one, but... only if you can log into the system!

This is the benefit of the new Refresh Your PC feature, which accessible from the recovery environment(Windows RE). This means that you can bring the system back to life even if it does not boot.

Another advantage of recovery is full automation of the process. In other words, you don't have to go through the initial steps of installing the system first, and you don't have to configure OOBE settings (language, time zone, etc.) at the end.

Restoring Windows using an installation disc or factory image

Despite the simplicity of the recovery procedure, it contains a number of pitfalls, and at the very beginning. Let's first define the main rollback scenarios.

You purchased a PC with Windows 8.1. The manufacturer registered the factory image as the recovery image for Refresh, so the procedure effectively restores the factory settings. It doesn’t matter whether you launch a rollback from Windows or a special key combination before booting the system (see user manual) - all roads lead to Rome.

You purchased a PC with Windows 8 and then upgraded it to 8.1. The manufacturer registered the Windows 8 image, so it is highly likely that a rollback to factory settings will not work, and even relatively simple way there is no way to return it. To restore you will need a free Windows distribution.

You installed Windows 8 or 8.1 on your PC yourself. If you didn't create the image yourself, you will also need the OS distribution.

Now we can talk about everything that was acquired through back-breaking labor.

What data will be recovered

Based on my tests and data from the TechNet library, I have prepared for you comparison table. It compares recovery with and without its own image, as well as a detailed breakdown of system and user settings (note that in the Excel workbook three sheets).

Note that regardless of whether the image is present, most personal settings are lost, as well as all desktop application settings. I spoke separately about the reasons for this behavior of Refresh Your PC.

Starting recovery when the system can be logged in

The beauty of Refresh Your PC is that it requires minimal movement from you. Press Win + W and find Computer recovery(in English OS -), or press Win + R and execute systemreset.

Running recovery when login fails

If the system does not boot, you can get to the update mechanism from the recovery environment, where Windows 8 should automatically enter if it cannot boot into the system. If this doesn't happen:

Boot from
pre-created recovery disk
or
installation disk, select your language and click System Restore.
Click Diagnostics, then Restore.

That's all! At the end of the process, you will receive a working system, and a report about deleted programs will be saved on your desktop.

Lost programs can be quickly downloaded, because... for your convenience, their names are made with links leading to the developers’ website (if they provided links, of course).

In my experiment, recovery was generally successful. Only the shortcuts are lost command line and Run windows pinned to the taskbar and Start screen. I think this can be attributed to the preview version of Windows 8.

Restoring Windows using a pre-created image

The ability to create your own image and assign it as a mark for recovery is served as the most delicious part of the Refresh Your PC pie. The only difference from recovery without a pre-created image is the return Windows folders and Program Files to the state at the time the backup image was created. Otherwise identical.

Creating an image using the recimg utility

Windows 8 includes a console utility recimg, thanks to which the image is created with one command:

Recimg /createimage D:\backup

here D:\backup is the folder where the file will be saved CustomRefresh.wim.

If the specified folder is not on the disk, the utility will create it itself. And if the wrong path is specified, the image must be looked for in the System32 folder (I checked this in practice by accidentally putting a semicolon instead of a colon after the drive letter :)

The created image is automatically registered as a starting point for recovery, which is launched by the command you already know systemreset.

Starting a recovery from a pre-created image

Now you can rollback without an installation disk by logging into the Windows RE environment. But even if you boot from a disk or flash drive, the system is restored using the image you created, and not the standard one. I provided instructions for starting the recovery above.

How Refresh Your PC works

Saving data in shadow copies

After executing the image creation command, I immediately noticed the line “Creating snapshot”.

This suggested that the data included in the image was first stored in shadow copies. Process Monitor confirmed my assumption.

After which I could not resist and looked into the shadow copies. With one command you can list them and see the path to the shadow copy volume. And access from the file manager is already a matter of technology, thanks to symbolic links.

Vssadmin list shadows mklink /d c:\shadow \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy2\

Creating a WIM image

Shadow copies allow you to create an image running at the moment the system, and this new opportunity Windows 8.

In Windows 7 and Vista, a utility was used to capture a volume into a WIM image imagex, and the operation had to be performed when the system is not running (for example, from another installation or Windows PE). Now the main tool for working with images, DISM, has acquired the functions of creating and using WIM images.

DISM /Capture-Image/? DISM /Apply-Image/?

Obviously, recimg uses the same technology, but does not involve the DISM utility in the process, otherwise its log and Process Monitor would reflect this fact.

Image Contents

Having created the image, I did not fail to look into it:

DISM.exe /Mount-Wim /WimFile:D:\backup\CustomRefresh.wim /index:1 /MountDir:C:\mount

System folders and programs located on the system partition are present in full, which cannot be said about user data.

Of the user data, only the shared folder and the standard user profile are included in the image.

As a result, the WIM image itself is not suitable as a backup copy, for example, in the event of a disk failure. Obviously, it does not contain data or user settings. However, when you restore Windows 8 using Refresh Your PC, your data will not be lost!

Restoring Windows 8 in Windows PE

The recovery procedure is performed in the Windows PE environment, regardless of whether you launched Refresh Your PC from a running system or a recovery environment (Windows RE).

And this is where the already familiar mechanism of reinstalling the system comes into play, preserving the data and settings of the user environment. The sequence in brief is:

The contents of profiles and other folders are moved to a separate area on the disk.
A new system is being installed.
Your files are returned to their original locations

The difference from reinstalling on top is that the contents of the profiles are not restored entirely, which is why program parameters and personal settings are lost in particular.

If you have created your own image CustomRefresh.wim, it is used as the installation WIM image, and not the standard file install.wim from the distribution.

As in the case of reinstalling a system over an existing one, the old OS is stored in the Windows.old folder, which can be deleted.

As you can see, Refresh Your PC uses a combination of new DISM capabilities and time-tested data transfer technologies to restore Windows 8 using Refresh Your PC.

Scenarios for using the recimg utility

The utility itself is extremely easy to use, but it is important to understand what purposes it is intended for.

recimg command line options

Since the utility's built-in help is currently only available in English, I will briefly comment on the command line parameters:

/createimage– creates an image in the specified folder using shadow copies
/showcurrent– displays the path to the image that is used for recovery
/setcurrent– registers the folder where the image is stored as a starting point
/deregister– unregisters (allowing you to restore using the installation disk)

As you can see, you can create multiple images in different time and register any of them as a rollback point.

Differences between using recimg and imagex

The recimg utility is not a replacement for imagex, since it is designed exclusively for the Refresh Your PC function.

Launch environment. As I noted above, imagex can only capture an image if the system is not running. This can be done from Windows PE or another OS. In contrast, recimg is aimed at running on a busy system.
Dataset in an image. The imagex utility captures the entire volume, excluding some unnecessary files, or as per your list. recimg has a different task - only the system, programs and standard profile.
Generalization of the image. Typically, imagex is started after the image has been generalized using the sysprep utility. Using recimg does not imply such a scenario, and the resulting image is intended only for deployment on the system on which it was created.

Thus, the recimg utility does not make any adjustments to the creation of a customized system image for the purpose of deploying it to other PCs.

Discussion and poll

The introduction of Refresh Your PC in Windows 8 shows that Microsoft continues to improve and simplify Windows recovery mechanisms.

Now, even in the worst case scenario, when you can’t restore the boot, you can get a working system in no time.

In this case, all personal data will be safe and sound, and losses will be reduced only to ordinary programs that are easy to reinstall.

And for IT professionals and enthusiasts aware of the ability to create their own image, there is another tool for creating a rollback image, although it cannot be considered a backup tool.

In Windows 7, I create an image of the system partition on a weekly schedule. By the way, how do you create system images? Justify your choice in the comments!

If you would like to discuss Refresh Your PC and other Windows recovery mechanisms, Share your thoughts in the comments! If you'd like to speak on other Windows 8-related topics, comments on this post are still open.

Owners of personal computers often wonder where to get the original Windows 8 image. It is very easy to find sites where the user is offered to download an operating system image, but can such resources be trusted?

Some Windows versions from unknown sites they work very “crookedly”, if they still work at all. The eighth version in such a kit often has rather poor functionality, the standard appearance changes to topics of questionable quality.

Downloading official images of new versions of Windows OS brings many problems to users. Fortunately, there are several options for solving this problem that will allow you to acquire a distribution kit simply and without unnecessary difficulties.

Therefore, you must first familiarize yourself with the distribution download methods and choose the best ones.

Upload via Media Creation Tool

A fairly simple and comfortable way to download the distribution is to use the Media Creation Tool program. It was developed by Microsoft Corporation for the purpose of creating installation media for operating systems.

The utility's interface is quite simple and even inexperienced users can work with it.

First you need to run the program, select the most convenient OS language (Russian is present), the system release and its bit capacity - 32 (x86) or 64 (x64).

Next, you need to choose one of the two options offered by the program. The first allows you to immediately make a USB installation drive, and the second allows you to download an ISO distribution for further recording on a CD or other media.

When choosing the second option, you will also have to specify the location where the program should place the files and simply wait until the Windows 8 ISO image is downloaded.

Advice! If your computer does not have such a program for creating installation files, then this is not a problem. The Media Creation Tool is completely free to download from the Microsoft website.

Downloading the distribution if you have a key

If the user bought the official operating system on the Internet, then he does not have an installation disk. This brings certain difficulties in the process of reinstalling the OS.

To avoid such an unpleasant situation, it is better to immediately download the original Windows 8 image and burn it to a USB drive or disk.

To create an installation image, you only need the official product key. If this is not the case, you can purchase it on the Microsoft website.

All subsequent actions are performed in several stages:

You need to open a specific page on the Microsoft website and download the installation image by clicking on the “Install Windows 8” button;

Next, you need to enter the license key, after which the downloading and installation of the required programs and files will begin.

Then the user is presented with a choice of three options: install the OS, create installation media, or install later. In this case, select the option to create media (it's in the middle);

In the next step, the user needs to select in which format to download the OS image. Here the ISO option is selected and the “Save” button is pressed;

The final step will be to record the distribution onto a specific medium.

Download the Enterprise trial version

You can also additionally download the official trial version of Windows 8. During its installation, you do not need a license key, but such an OS will only work for 3 months. The trial version is installed for virtual machines and all sorts of experiments.

To download, you need to be registered in the Microsoft system and log in to your account. Not on the website ISO image with an operating system in Russian, but this problem is quite easy to solve.

In the control panel, through the Language section, the required language package is installed.

Using such simple and simple methods, you can easily obtain an image of the Windows 8 OS. Of course, you can download the distribution kit from one of hundreds of unknown sites without any hassles, but installing and working with such a system will bring many difficulties.

Download via Torrent

This download option has many advantages, because downloading through a torrent client is quite fast and convenient.

Also, unlike files on unknown sites, trackers make it possible to view ratings and reviews, and this significantly reduces the risk of downloading a broken OS.

To use this method, a torrent client must be pre-installed on your computer (the well-known Utorrent is perfect).

Working with such a program is very simple; with its help, a torrent file is opened, then the user leaves checkmarks next to those programs that need to be downloaded and presses the “Ok” button.

When installing an operating system, problems often arise with the key requirement. Solving this problem is quite simple. You need to enter the installation key in the field that matches the version of Windows.

Important! These keys will only help you install the OS, but you won’t be able to activate Windows using them.

The registry is a large database that stores all the parameters necessary for the normal operation of the operating system. You can view it through the registry editor, which is available in Windows. Any user can log in if their account has administrator rights.

And if you made any changes, or the computer turned off by itself, for various reasons, or you accidentally pressed the wrong key and deleted a parameter or an entire registry branch, then this may not have the best effect on the operation of the computer.

And yet, if this happens, let's figure out what ways there are to restore the Windows 7 and Windows 8 registry so that the computer can operate normally.

Using a backup

As you probably guessed, this method is not suitable for everyone. If you previously created backup copies of the registry through “File” - “Export” - read on, if not - move on to the next method.

So, you have a backup copy. Press the combination Win + R, the “Run” window will open. In the “Open” field we write regedit and click “OK”.

The Registry Editor window should appear. In it, go to the “File” tab and select “Import” from the menu.

Explorer will open, find the previously created backup in it and click “Open”.

Wait while the files are copied.

Using System Restore

System recovery can be done using restore checkpoints. You could create them earlier, when the system was stable and you were satisfied with everything. Or they could be created automatically by the system: when making changes to the computer configuration, before installing drivers, etc.

Let's first consider how to restore the registry if the operating system boots. In Windows 7, go to Start - "Control Panel".

Here we are interested in the point "Recovery".

In the next window, click "Run System Restore".

Now you need to select a restore point. If there are several points, and you are in doubt, look at the date the point was created - did your computer work normally on these dates?! - choose her. Clicking "Search for affected programs", you can see which programs will be removed as a result of recovery. Click "Next".

We confirm the system rollback to the selected state by clicking “Finish”.

All data, including the registry, will correspond to the state that was at the time the selected recovery point was created.

If you have Windows 8 installed on your computer, read the article: Windows 8 restore point and system rollback. There you will be interested in the second part. The steps you will need to perform are the same as those described above.

If the OS does not start

Restore the registry if the computer does not turn on It's also possible. In the Windows 7 operating system, when booting the computer, press the F8 button at intervals of 1 second. A window will appear "More download options". In it, use the arrows to select the item "Troubleshooting your computer".

In the next window, select your language and click Next.

Choose yours account, it is better that she has administrator rights, then enter the password if you have one set when logging in, and click “OK”.

The following window should appear, select the item in it "System Restore".

A recovery window will open, click “Next” in it and repeat the steps described in the paragraph above.

If you have Windows 8 installed on your computer, you can press F8 or Shift+F8 when loading, but you are unlikely to see a window for additional download options. It's best to use a system repair disk or bootable USB flash drive. You can create them on any other computer with Windows 8 installed.

Follow the link and read the article on how to restore Windows 8. Everything is described there in detail. You should see the following window. Then follow the path: “Diagnostics” – "System Restore", and select the desired restore point.

Via command line

In Windows, the files that are responsible for the operation of the registry are stored in the following path: C: (your system drive letter)/Windows/System32/config. There is also a folder RegBack, it stores backup copies of all registry branches. They are updated automatically by the system, depending on the settings, every 5-10 days.

We need to do the following: delete the files DEFAULT, SAM, SECURITY, SYSTEM, SOFTWARE, which are located in the config folder, and replace them with similar files from the RegBack folder.

We will not be able to do this in the operating system, since we will need to replace the files responsible for its operation. Therefore, you need to use additional boot options and open the command line.

In Windows 7, press F8 when the system boots. Then you need to do everything as described in the paragraph above. In the window "System Recovery Options", select item "Command line". As a result, the command line will launch as administrator.

In Windows 8, you can open the command line using the combination. This is described in detail in the article: Windows 8 Safe Mode. Read the point: go to safe mode using the combination Shift+reboot. When the following window appears, select "Command line".

If the computer does not turn on at all due to changes in the registry, then read the paragraph: enter safe mode using a system repair disk (you can create it on any computer with Windows 8 installed).

So, we launched the command line. Now enter the following commands line by line. At the end of each line, press Enter. First, let's create a badreg folder on the system drive and copy all the files of our non-working registry into it. Then we safely delete the files DEFAULT, SAM, SECURITY, SYSTEM, SOFTWARE from the config folder, because we have copies of them. And lastly, copy the backups from the regback folder to the config folder.

MD c:\badreg
copy c:\windows\system32\config\default c:\badreg
copy c:\windows\system32\config\sam c:\badreg
copy c:\windows\system32\config\system c:\badreg
copy c:\windows\system32\config\security c:\badreg
copy c:\windows\system32\config\software c:\badreg

delete c:\windows\system32\config\default
delete c:\windows\system32\config\sam
delete c:\windows\system32\config\system
delete c:\windows\system32\config\security
delete c:\windows\system32\config\software

copy c:\windows\system32\config\regback\default c:\windows\system32\config\
copy c:\windows\system32\config\regback\sam c:\windows\system32\config\
copy c:\windows\system32\config\regback\system c:\windows\system32\config\
copy c:\windows\system32\config\regback\security c:\windows\system32\config\
copy c:\windows\system32\config\regback\software c:\windows\system32\config\
exit

After you enter the exit command, the command prompt window will close and the computer will restart.

I hope one of the methods will help you restore the registry in the Windows 7 or 8 operating system.

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Discussion: 12 comments

I enter the commands in the line as shown, for some reason it says: “the system was unable to find this path,” what should I do?

Answer

Many novice users are wondering how to enter the registry in Windows 10, 8, 7 or XP. No matter how much you go through the Start menu items, you won’t find a shortcut to the registry in it! How to open the registry in Windows?

The fact is that any thoughtless change in the registry can lead to catastrophic consequences for your computer. To prevent inexperienced users from causing trouble, access to the registry was hidden.

Promise yourself that you won't make any rash changes to the registry to do not harm your computer!

Details about what is a registry How it works and how it can be used can be read in.

For any version of Windows, there are several ways to launch a program in which you can change registry settings (it's called " registry editor»).

Let's start with the latest Windows 10, and consider two options for accessing the registry.

Launching Registry Editor - Method 1 for Windows 10

Click the "Start" button with the left mouse button (or the "Windows" key on the keyboard);
When the Start menu opens, type " regedit"(without quotes);
At the top of the search menu, under the inscription “Best match”, the item “REGEDIT – Execute command” will appear, click on this item with the left mouse button;
If a confirmation window for launching Registry Editor appears, click “Yes”;

The Registry Editor window will appear in front of you, in which you can make changes to the registry itself.

Launching Registry Editor on Windows 10

Launching Registry Editor - Method 2 for Windows 10

Click the “Start” button with the right mouse button (or the Win+X key combination);
In the menu that appears, select “Run” (these two steps can be replaced with one key combination Win+R);
In the “Run” window that appears, type “ regedit" (without quotes) and click OK;
In the launch confirmation window, click “Yes”;

The Registry Editor window will appear, and you can start making changes.

You can clearly see how to enter the Windows 10 registry in this video:

How to open the registry in Windows 8/8.1

To launch the Registry Editor in Windows 8, you need to follow the same steps as in Windows 10, if you have version 8 and not 8.1, then you do not have a “Start” button, so in the first step of the first method, press the “Windows” key, and then everything according to the instructions above.

Detailed video instructions on how to enter the Registry Editor in Windows 8 (8.1):

How to open the registry in Windows 7

To open the Registry Editor in Windows 7, you need to follow similar steps:

Launching Registry Editor - Method 1 for Windows 7

Type the command " regedit"(without quotes);
Click at the top of the menu, under the inscription “Programs” on the inscription “ regedit»;
When prompted to confirm the launch, select “Yes.”

Launching Registry Editor - Method 2 for Windows 7

Press the Win+R key combination on your keyboard (hold down the Windows key and, without releasing it, press the R key);
In the “Run” window, type the command “ regedit
Confirm the launch of the registry editor with the “Yes” button.

Both methods of entering the Windows 7 Registry Editor can be seen in this video:

How to open the registry in Windows XP

In Windows XP, opening the Registry Editor is slightly different:

Launching Registry Editor - Method 1 for Windows XP

Click on “Start” with the left mouse button;
In the right column, find the “Run” item (both steps can be replaced with the Win+R combination)
In the “Run program” window, write the command “ regedit" (without quotes) and click the "OK" button;

Launching Registry Editor in Windows XP

Launching Registry Editor - Method 2 for Windows XP (and more)

Open File Explorer (you can use the keyboard shortcut Win+X);
Go to drive “C:”;
Open the Windows folder;
Find the "regedit" file and run it.

And, of course, a video version of opening a registry editing program in Windows XP:

The second method is suitable for all of the listed versions of Windows. Moreover, you can cheat a little:

Once you get to the "regedit" file you can create a shortcut on the desktop and further significantly simplify access to the Registry Editor.

You can find out more about what a registry is and how it works.

Conclusion

Today you learned how to enter the registry in all current versions of Windows OS.

In total there was three ways:

Search through the Start menu by entering the command “regedit”
Using the Run command and typing "regedit"
Opening the "regedit" file located in the C:\Windows\ folder

And one additional method: Having reached the “regedit” file (third method), create a shortcut on the Desktop.

In the next tutorial, I plan to look at a way to save (back up) certain parts of the registry before changing them.

Interesting? Write in the comments, ask questions, and, of course, share the link in in social networks and subscribe to news!

Copying prohibited, but you can share links.

Windows Registry is a hierarchical database in which all operating parameters are stored Windows systems. The registry contains settings for computer software and hardware, information about user profiles, security policies, lists of installed software and other system information.

We will not go into details of the structure, content and work with the registry, since this is a topic for a separate article. Let's consider only ways to enter the registry editor (run regedit.exe).

Warning! All actions with the registry must be thought out; do not make changes if you are not sure of their result. You must be clear about what you are doing, since even minor changes to settings can disrupt the operation of the operating system.

1. Opening the Windows Registry Editor through the Run utility

utility Execute you can run different ways. Fastest: press a key combination on the keyboard Win+R. In Windows 7 you can use the menu Start -> Run. In the window that opens, enter and press OK (or enter on your keyboard).

2. Opening through Windows Explorer

Another simple way is to launch through Windows Explorer. To do this, just open My computer and go to the following path: C:\Windows. In this folder we find and run the file. Ready.

3. Launch Registry Editor via Windows Search

In Windows 7 with a standard desktop, you can open the Start menu and type in the search bar at the bottom. operating system The required file was quickly found and would need to be opened.

Open Start

And enter regedit

In Windows 8, you can open the registry editor through search in the same way, only this OS uses a “tiled” interface instead of the standard Start.

In the right menu select search