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'Bout Computers Windows XP Registry Backup In Windows XP, the registry files are located in your WINDOWS> SYSTEM32> CONFIG> folder (in Windows 2000, it's WINNT> SYSTEM32> CONFIG). The files have no extensions and are named DEFAULT, SAM, SECURITY, SOFTWARE, and SYSTEM. If you have other users on your computer, you will also notice other files named NTUSER.DAT and USRCLASS.DAT along with the default files. Unlike the registry in Windows 95/98/Me, these files are not automatically backed for you every time you boot your computer and you cannot copy them yourself. If you try to copy and paste any one of the files in the Config folder, you will get an error message stating that the files are in use and cannot be copied. To backup these files manually, you would have to use the Recovery Console or work in MS-DOS. Both methods are not very easy for most and not at all convenient for anyone. An exception that would make manual backup as easy as it was in Windows 9x, would be if you have a dual boot fat system between Windows 9x and Windows XP or Windows 2000, in which case backing up the registry files would be a simple matter of copying and pasting them from within Windows 9x to some backup folder right inside 9x. (In the event of registry corruption, you would just boot to your Windows 9x system and then copy and paste the backed up registry files to the Config folder in Windows XP or 2000.) Extremely simple. The reality, however, is that many of you do not have a multi boot system or you use NTFS, so this method is not possible. Fortunately, thanks to programmer Lars Hederer, there is an even easier method that makes none of the above methods necessary. And that is by using his free registry backup and restore utiltiy named Erunt which eliminates any need to back up your registry files manually. With Erunt you can backup your NT/2000/XP registry within Windows. You can download the latest version
of Erunt here: And if you applied the SP2 patch to XP, be sure you use the latest version. The previous version can be problematic or not work at all with SP2. There is no install needed with Erunt. Just extract all the files to a folder of your choice and click Erunt.exe to start the program. For convenience, you might want to create a desktop shortcut to erunt.exe. Using Erunt is simple. Basically, all you do is choose a folder where you'd like to store your registry files and click a button. Your registry will now be copied to that folder. In addition, the folder will contain an exe file named erdnt.exe which is what you would click should you need to restore your registry. Again, you can do this right within Windows. However, in the event that you cannot boot your system, it can also be used in Dos mode or if your file system is NTFS and you can't boot to Dos you can use the Recovery console to copy the backed up registry files to your \System32\Config folder. For more help on using erunt, read
the excellent help file which you can see here: AUTOMATE REGISTRY BACKUP You can use a simple bat file to automate the backing up of your registry with erunt. For example, a bat file with the lines below would automatically back up the registry to the folder XPREG on the D: drive without a progress window or any other user intervention.It would also automatically overwrite any existing backup in the folder chosen. @echo off The above example assumes your Erunt folder is on the desktop (C:\Documents and Settings\vic\Desktop\ERUNT) and that the folder to back up to is D:\XPREG. To customize for yourself, substitute those paths with your own. Again, see the help file for more options and information. AUTOMATING REGISTRY EXPORT You can also create a bat file or shortcut to automate the export of your entire registry to a text file. This is not suitable to use for backing up or restoring your registry, but it can be helpful for searching your registry in a faster and more convenient matter, as you can use your text editor's Find feature. A bat file or shortcut with this single command would automate the process for you: %windir%\regedit.exe /e "C:\Documents and Settings\UserNameHere\Desktop\XPreg.txt" In the above line, note the path. The registry would be exported and saved to a file named XPreg.txt on the users desktop. Obviously, you would substitute that path to reflect the real location where you want to save the exported file. Vic Ferri owns the very popular WinTips and Tricks and Registry Answers. Subscribe to either and receive free Windows and Registry Tips. He is also in charge of the Printing Tips pages at Linda's Computer Stop. Vic has also created a program which allows you to Lock & Hide desktop folders in Windows 9X/ME. Read more and get the free demo here. And, he now offers a service to convert PowerPoint presentations to .exe files which can be viewed on computers which do not have PowerPoint installed. |
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