Backup and Restore Registry in Windows

Registry Editor is an advanced tool for viewing and changing settings in your system registry, which contains information about how your computer runs. Almost anything cam be achieved by editing the registry but keep in mind- most of the important system settings are stored inside the Registry. Making incorrect changes in the registry can crash your system. It's highly advisable to backup the registry before editing any portion of it. So, here are three methods for safe backing and restoring of your System Registry. All methods are Working for all Windows Versions including Windows 7

First Method: Registry Backup Using System Restore

Use System Restore to easily Backup your Registry

 One way to backup the registry is to create a System Restore snapshot. System Restore returns your computer to a previous snapshot without losing recent personal information, such as documents, history lists, favorites, or e-mail. It monitors the computer and many applications for changes and creates restore points. You restore these snapshots when your configuration isn't working. This is the easiest and most common method for making a backup. It does not require any technical skills and can be done by anyone. 

System Restore For Windows XP 

Create a New System Restore point. 

Go to Start >> All programs >> Accessories >> System Tools >> System Restore. Create a new System Restore Point by Clicking  Create a restore point and then click Next.

Create System Restore in Windows XP

To Restore From previously created System Restore Point

Go to system Restore as explained above. From the Welcome to System Restore screen of the System Restore Wizard select Restore my computer to an earlier time. Then select the date you created the restore point from the calendar in the Select a Restore Point screen. All of the restore points you created and you computer created on the selected date are listed by name in the list box to the right of the calendar.

Restoring Windows to Previous Version

Even though this method is easy ,it is often unreliable in case you want to rollback the registry changes made a longtime ago, in which case the System Restore might have purged that particular restore point - due to space constraints or due to a recent system restore point or even a Restore point corruption. But, Due to its simplicity, it is still advised to first use this method.

System Restore Point For Vista\Windows7 

• Right-click on the Computer icon in the Desktop, and choose Properties
• In the left pane, click System Protection
• Alternately, to access the System Protection tab directly, click Start and type SystemPropertiesProtection.exe
• If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmatio

 All the Steps are similar to as described for XP.

Second Method: Backing Selected Parts of Registry

 System restore point should be the first line of defense. However, in certain cases, it is preferable to back up and restore only selected parts of registry. For example, if you want to make changes  to registry for trying a certain Visual element hack or for repairing a particular problem. In such cases, Only restoring selected parts of registry is required. It can be done in following Steps

• Click Start, and then click Run. Or else, Just type Windows + R keys together to bring the Run dialog box
• In the Open Dialog box, type regedit.exe, and then click OK
• You'll be shown the entire registry hive which will look something like this 
• Locate and then click the key that contains the value that you want to edit.
• Right-click on the key and choose Export.
• In the Save in box, select a location where you want to save the Registration Entries (.reg)
• In the File name box, type a file name, and then click Save.

 

This creates your backup of system Registry. Save the .Reg file in a secure location. Now to Restore your Registry to previous version , just double click the .REG file. It automatically merges the contents to the Registry.

Third Method: Backing up the whole Registry

To backup the entire registry (in hive format) you can use the excellent ERUNT (The Emergency Recovery Utility for NT) Utility, which can be used in Windows NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista and also in Windows 7.
Download ERUNT and install it.

ERUNT sets up a shortcut in the Startup group, that backs up the registry for the current day, during the first Windows startup for the day. You can make manual backups also which is quite easy to do using this tool. It is described as a step by step process below:

Step 1.  Start the Erunt

Step 2. Choose a location for the backup

The default location C:\WINDOWS\ERDNT\[today's date] is preferre. The first two check boxes are ticked by default (System registry and Current user registry).

Step 3. Press OK

 

When Prompted, Click yes to create a New Folder. Now Progress bar will show backup status and display a message when the backup would finish. A Simple solution .