How you can backup and
restore the Registry?
Windows 95
Microsoft included a utility on the Windows 95 CD-ROM that lets you
create backups of the Registry on your computer. The Microsoft
Configuration Backup program, CFGBACK.EXE, can be found in the \Other\Misc\Cfgback
directory on the Windows 95 CD-ROM. This utility lets you create up to
nine different backup copies of the Registry, which it stores, with the
extension RBK, in your \Windows directory. If your system is set up for
multiple users, CFGBACK.EXE won't back up the USER.DAT file.
After you have backed up your Registry, you can copy the RBK file
onto a floppy disk for safekeeping. However, to restore from a backup,
the RBK file must reside in the \Windows directory. Windows 95 stores
the backups in compressed form, which you can then restore only by using
the CFGBACK.EXE utility.
Windows 98
Microsoft Windows 98 automatically creates a backup copy of the registry
every time Windows starts, in addition to this you can manually create a
backup using the Registry Checker utility by running SCANREGW.EXE
from Start | Run menu.
What to do if you get a Corrupted Registry
Windows 95, 98 and NT all have a simple registry backup mechanism that
is quite reliable, although you should never simply rely on it, remember
to always make a backup first!
Windows 95
In the Windows directory there are several hidden files, four of these
will be SYSTEM.DAT & USER.DAT, your current registry, and SYSTEM.DA0
& USER.DA0, a backup of your registry. Windows 9x has a nice
reature in that every time it appears to start successfully it will copy
the registry over these backup files, so just in case something goes
wrong can can restore it to a known good state. To restore the registry
follow these instruction:
1. Click the Start button, and then click Shut Down.
2. Click Restart The Computer In MS-DOS Mode, then click Yes.
3. Change to your Windows directory. For example, if your Windows
directory is c:\windows, you would type the following:
5. Restart your computer.
Following this procedure will restore your registry to its state when
you last successfully started your computer.
If all else fails, there is a file on your hard disk named
SYSTEM.1ST that was created when Windows 95 was first successfully
installed. If necessary you could also change the file attributes of
this file from read-only and hidden to archive to copy the file to
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.DAT.
Windows NT
On Windows NT you can use either the "Last Known Good" option
or RDISK to restore to registry to a stable working configuration.
How can I clean out old data from the Registry?
Although it's possible to manually go through the Registry and delete
unwanted entries, Microsoft provides a tool to automate the process, the
program is called RegClean. RegClean analyzes Windows Registry keys
stored in a common location in the Windows Registry. It finds keys that
contain erroneous values, it removes them from the Windows Registry
after having recording those entries in the Undo.Reg file.
