registry location?

[BlkShdw88]

ive always found it hard to understand or find where the registry is located in windows and ive never been able to find out where it is ... is it one file with all of the registry inside of it and hidden from users? or in multiple files spread out across somewhere? any ideas would be helpful thanx

 

[killians45]

It's made of the system.dat, user.dat files and in binary files. Depends on windows version. .dat for 9x and ME and in user file (binary) for 2k and xp.

 

[bla!!]

In 2k and XP, the hkey_current_user for each user are associated with the ntuser.dat located in each user directory (c:\documents and settings\%username%)

 

[BlkShdw88]

cool that always got me thinking, thanks. umm any ideas where i could find the binary file(s) for registry in winxp? is it in the windows directory? oh and for the 9x and me ones they r in windows directory to? (C:\Windows)??

 

[KSoD]

Well if your just trying to look at the registry or edit it you can always do a START>RUn>Regedit. That will bring up the registry editor. But be careful as in any changes might mess up your system to the point of repair and\or re install.

 

[BlkShdw88]

nah i know how to open registry i just want to know where it is stored in a particular file etc. i found the ntuser.dat and its a pretty big file but isnt that just hkey_current_user ??

 

[KSoD]

I dont believe that you can find the actual files. Even if you have all files showing i dont htink it allows you to view them. But i have never wanted to find them so i have never tried.

 

[BlkShdw88]

hmm you would think that showing system protected files (folder options) would show you everything if it is protected which it probly is.. but yeh i just wondering because ive used countless programs and software that backups your registry and i suppose i just wanna know the files it is accessing for it and where the registry files are stored.

 

[KSoD]

I supposed that showing system protected files would work. Since that would be a protected batch of files.