How to Backup and Restore Your Windows Registry

The Windows Registry is a tool that assists the operating system in managing the system and helps the various applications and programs use the computer’s resources.

Using the Registry Editor, a Windows user can create, modify, delete registry keys, subkeys, and values.

Since the registry basically contains all the crucial data that sits in your system, it is a good idea to back it up before making any changes through the registry editor.

After all, you wouldn’t want to lose all your data over a minor change. This article discusses the various methods used to back up and restore your Windows Registry.

How To Backup your Windows Registry

1. Go to Start on your Windows laptop/desktop and search for Run OR Press the shortcut key Windows + R.
2. Type regedit.msc in Run and click on OK.
   
   
3. In the Registry Editor, from the menu bar on the top, click on File.
4. Click on Export.
   
   
5. In the Export Registry File window, type the name of the file for backup. Choose an appropriate naming convention so you can identify the file later when needed.
6. At the bottom of the window, you must be able to see the “Export range” section.
7. Select either “All” to backup your Windows Registry or “Selected branch” if you want to backup only a particular registry key.
8. Click on Save. It might take a few minutes to back up the registry. The backup will be in the form of a .reg file.
   
   

How to Restore Your Windows Registry

Method 1

1. Go to Start on your Windows laptop/desktop and search for Run OR Press the shortcut key Windows + R.
2. Type regedit.msc in Run and click on OK.
3. In the Registry Editor, from the menu bar on the top, click on File.
4. Click on Import.
   
   
5. In the dialog box that pops up, navigate to the path where the backup file that you want to restore is located.
6. Click on Open.

More on Windows here:

1. How to take a screenshot of Windows Login Screen.
2. Ways to format a drive in FAT32 in Windows 10.
3. How to stop or pause Windows 10 update.

Method 2

1. Navigate to the location where you can find the backup file that you want to restore.
2. Right-click on the .reg file.
3. Select the Merge option.
   
   
4. In the box that pops up, click on Yes to confirm the restoration of the registry.

Alternatively, you can also just double-click on the backup .reg file in order to restore it.

Method 3

Some third-party applications that you can use to restore your Windows Registry are RegBak and Registrar Registry Manager.

Conclusion

So, just like that, through a few quick and easy steps, you can back up and restore your Windows Registry. Now, every time you want to make any changes in the registry, you can resort to the above method to back up the registry and later, restore it.

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