How to Use Regedit to Make a Registry Backup
It‘s a good idea to make regular backups of all your important computer data and a registry backup is no exception. The registry is an integral part of your Windows system, which stores important information about your computer and installed software programs.
Therefore, it makes sense to make a backup once in while in case something goes wrong with it. Making a registry backup is therefore essential because every program that you install will mean changes to the registry and badly written software can cause major problems with it.
Making a backup of your registry is a great idea if this happens to you.
- You install a malware program that takes control of your web browser.
- An installed application is causing problems now but was working fine when you created the backup.
Making a regular registry backup (say once a week) could save you many problems along the way and it is easy enough to do with a commercial registry cleaner, which will do it automatically.
If you don’t have a registry cleaner program though, you can use a program called Regedit, which comes installed with Windows tself.
To start Regedit this is what you must do;
- Click on the Start button, which should be on the left of your Windows taskbar.
- Click on Run…
- In the box that appears type regedit and then press the Enter key.
- A window will now appear with the title ‘Registry Editor’.
- Click on the File menu, and select Export.
- Choose the location where you wish to save the registry backup file.
- Type in a name for the file.
- Click on the Save button.
You now have a backup of your Windows registry! Easy wasn’t it?
By the way, registry backups can be many megabytes so after a while delete some of the older backups to save disk space.
Now you might be asking; “How do I restore the registry from a backup?”
Once again, this is quite simple.
- Find the backup file you saved earlier.
- Double click on it.
- You will then be asked if you are sure if you want to add the data to your registry.
- Click on Yes and the registry will be restored automatically.
As you can see, making a registry backup with Regedit is safe and requires no great knowledge of using a Windows PC.
Final words about the registry…
Many people have no idea what the registry is or even how to view its contents, which is good in a way because it stops them from making changes to the data held inside. One little mistake in editing the registry could stop your computer from starting up so don’t make manual edits to the registry unless you know exactly what you are doing.
If you want to keep your registry in optimum condition at all times consider using a reliable registry cleaner program instead which will also make a backup for you.
