How to back up the registry in Windows?

Before you edit the registry, export the keys in the registry that you plan to edit, or back up the whole registry. If a problem occurs, you can then follow the steps to restore the registry to its previous state.

Manual steps to export registry subkeys

You can follow these steps to export a registry subkey before you edit it.

Note Do not follow these steps to export a whole registry subtree. (HKEY_CURRENT_USER is an example of such a subtree.) If you must back up whole registry subtrees, back up the whole registry instead.

1. Click Start, and then click Run.

2. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.

3. Locate and then click the subkey that contains the value that you want to edit.

4. On the File menu, click Export.

5. In the Save in box, select a location where you want to save the Registration Entries (.reg) file, type a file name in the File name box, and then click Save.

Manual steps to back up the whole registry

To back up the whole registry, use the Backup utility to back up the system state. The system state includes the registry, the COM+ Class Registration Database, and your boot files.

For more information about using the Backup utility to back up the system state, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

How to use Backup to back up files and folders on your computer in Windows XP (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308422/)

How to use the Backup utility to back up files and folders in Windows XP Home Edition (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/320820/)

How to use the Backup feature to back up and restore data in Windows Server 2003 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/326216/)

Restore the Registry

Restore the registry
To restore the registry, use the appropriate method.


Restore the registry keys
To restore registry subkeys that you exported, double-click the Registration Entries (.reg) file that you saved in the Export registry subkeys section. Alternatively, you can restore the whole registry from a backup. For additional information about how to restore the whole registry, see the Restore the whole registry section.


Restore the whole registry
To restore the whole registry, restore the system state from a backup.

For more information about how to restore the system state from a backup, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

How to use Backup to restore files and folders on your computer in Windows XP (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309340/)

Note Backing up the system state also creates updated copies of the registry files in the %SystemRoot%Repair folder. If you cannot start Windows XP after you edit the registry, you can replace the registry files manually by using the steps in the "Part One" section of the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from starting (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545/)

Applies to

• Microsoft Windows Server 2003, 64-Bit Datacenter Edition
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise x64 Edition
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition (32-bit x86)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition (32-bit x86)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition (32-bit x86)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Web Edition
• Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 Premium Edition
• Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 Standard Edition
• Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional
• Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
• Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2002
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional for Itanium-based systems
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional for Itanium-based systems