Windows Registry Tutorial: Registry Backup and Restore

Registry Backup is one activity that many people dont perform. We should backup the windows registry just as we backup our data in the hard disk. Just in case if a virus or anyother program corrupts the registry, you can safely restore it if you have taken a registry backup.

The Windows Registry Editor is capable of Exporting and Importing the registry to a file which is usually lesser than 1 MB.

The Registry(.REG) files:
The format of the Windows Registry file is (.REG). These files can be viewed using any text editor. Note that these files are like executables, which when double-clicked the registry entries are merged into the Windows Registry. Do not do this, as you cannot undo this operation not unmerge.

Exporting Registry Entries(Called as Keys):
To Backup the Registry, just Select File>Export. In the dialog box, you can select to backup the entire registry(select "All") or just the "selected Branch". There is no way to export only a selected value. You have to export the entire branch and edit it manually using a text editor and delete unwanted keys.

Importing Registry Keys:
Importing a registry file will overwrite the existing registry entries and create new registry entries(if an entry is available in .reg file and does not exist in windows registry)
To Import the registry, just Select File>Import and select the registry(.reg) file.