Editing Registry Values

by Allen Wyatt
(last updated September 7, 2015)

2

You change information in the Registry by using the Registry Editor to change the contents of a value. Here's the simplest way to make your changes:

  1. Start the Registry Editor, as you normally would.
  2. Locate the value you want to change. (You can look for it manually by drilling down through keys and values or you can use the Find feature in the Registry Editor.)
  3. Either double-click the value name at the right side of the Registry Editor or highlight the value and press Enter. You'll see a dialog box that allows you to change the value's contents. (See Figure 1.)

    4. Figure 1. The Registry Editor allows you to change Registry values.

  4. Make your changes, as desired.
  5. Click OK.

Remember that when you change values in the Registry, the effect of those changes may not be immediately apparent. In many cases, you'll need to restart Windows—and thereby force it to reload the Registry—in order to see the results of your change.

 This tip (10956) applies to Windows 7 and 8.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He  is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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What is one less than 4?

2015-09-07 09:01:02

sy

To add to my other comment: Another good practice before manually editing the registry is to create a Restore Point and label it Registry Edit. If something goes bad, go to that point and restore the registry as it was before you made the edit(s).

2015-09-07 08:52:28

Steve

To repeat a warning I posted in the other article about manipulating the registry in this issue of Windows Tips: Before making ANY changes directly to the registry, make a copy of the current registry. To do this, once in the registry program, click the File tab then the Export item. Export the registry to some file, preferably on a memory stick or the like. If something goes wrong, you can import that saved registry. Another suggestion is to save any entry you intend to change before the change is made to notepad or other text editor. If your change causes problems, copy the notepad line(s) back to the registry either manually or by copy/paste method. Remember, the registry is a very powerful thing which can really bite you if you don't have a recovery method.

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