Mastering Windows XP Registry Peter Hipson Associate Publisher: Joel Fugazzotto Acquisitions and Developmental Editor: Ellen L. Dendy Editor: Anamary Ehlen Production Editor: Elizabeth Campbell Technical Editor: Donald Fuller Electronic Publishing Specialist: Maureen Forys, Happenstance Type-O-Rama Proofreaders: Nanette Duffy, Emily Hsuan, Laurie O'Connell, Yariv Rabinovitch, Nancy Riddiough Book Designer: Maureen Forys, Happenstance Type-O-Rama Indexer: Ted Laux Cover Designer: Design Site Cover Illustrator: Sergie Loobkoff Copyright © 2002 SYBEX Inc., 1151 Marina Village Parkway, Alameda, CA 94501. World rights reserved. The author(s) created reusable code in this publication expressly for reuse by readers. Sybex grants readers limited permission to reuse the code found in this publication or its accompanying CD-ROM so long as the author is attributed in any application containing the reusable code and the code itself is never distributed, posted online by electronic transmission, sold, or commercially exploited as a stand-alone product. Aside from this specific exception concerning reusable code, no part of this publication may be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or reproduced in any way, including but not limited to photocopy, photograph, magnetic, or other record, without the prior agreement and written permission of the publisher. First edition copyright © 2000 SYBEX Inc. Library of Congress Card Number: 2002100057 ISBN: 0-7821-2987-0 SYBEX and the SYBEX logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of SYBEX Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Mastering is a trademark of SYBEX Inc. Screen reproductions produced with FullShot 99. FullShot 99 © 1991-1999 Inbit Incorporated. All rights reserved.FullShot is a trademark of Inbit Incorporated. TRADEMARKS: SYBEX has attempted throughout this book to distinguish proprietary trademarks from descriptive terms by following the capitalization style used by the manufacturer. The author and publisher have made their best efforts to prepare this book, and the content is based upon final release software whenever possible. Portions of the manuscript may be based upon pre-release versions supplied by software manufacturer(s). The author and the publisher make no representation or warranties of any kind with regard to the completeness or accuracy of the contents herein and accept no liability of any kind including but not limited to performance, merchantability, fitness for any particular purpose, or any losses or damages of any kind caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly from this book. This book is dedicated to my students at FPC. Perhaps the hardest part of their education is putting up with me. I expect a lot, and they give it. Acknowledgments An acknowledgments section is always hard to write; there are just so many people who have helped. An author's greatest fear is forgetting someone, so I always start off by saying thanks to everyone. If I didn't list you, please don't hate me! Thanks go to Ellen Dendy, of course, who served as acquisitions and developmental editor for this book. Ellen Dendy also helped greatly by providing critical direction whenever needed. (Of course, if you don't like this book, the blame falls on me and only me!) Thanks to the Sybex editorial staff, especially Anamary. Thanks also to Elizabeth Campbell, production editor, for her skillful work and management; to Maureen Forys, electronic publishing specialist, for her expert and speedy layout skills; and to Nanette Duffy, Emily Hsuan, Laurie O'Connell, Yariv Rabinovitch, and Nancy Riddiough, proofreaders, for their proficient proofreading of the pages. Don Fuller served well as our technical editor. It was Don's job to make sure that I told no lies, made no mistakes. Jerold Schulman (JSI, Inc.) maintains the web page at http://www.jsiinc.com/reghack.htm. He provided a lot of expert hints for this book. If you need assistance with your Windows XP installation, check out Jerold's web pages for his tips, tricks, and registry hacks. Special thanks to Laura Belt at Adler & Robin Books. Laura is the person who makes this a business and not a hobby. Thanks to Barry and Marcia Press for their input on the book's contents. Barry asked for a number of things to be covered, and I've covered as many as I could. Thanks to the ExpertZone (and my team members who put up with my slow responses), and everyone at Microsoft who helped, too. Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't thank my family, especially my wife, Nang, who has supported me through thick and thin, and the folks at CMC and MCH who made sure that I survived the experience. This book is dedicated to my students at FPC. Perhaps the hardest part of their education is putting up with me. I expect a lot, and give it. Introduction The registry has evoked emotions from terror to mystery. Few Windows XP users consider the registry their friend. After all, think of it: The registry is the heart and soul of the Windows XP operating system. The registry is everything-it is the brain of the operating system. Damage the registry, and Windows XP quickly develops brain damage and needs major surgery. This is it-the only book on the Windows XP registry that you will need. Now, I won't kid you; there are a few other books on the Windows registry. Every current version of Windows uses a similar registry structure, but we do find that there are sufficient differences between them make it difficult for one book to cover everything well. Will you need another book or tool besides this book? Maybe not. But I do recommend that you get Microsoft's Windows XP Resource Kit, too; it has a lot of good utilities that you will find invaluable. The Windows XP Resource Kit also has a lot of good non-registry stuff. This book covers the Windows XP registry from A to Z. I've covered the standard stuff, from things that most of us should know to things that are not documented at all and are probably only known by a very few first-rate system administrators. Who Is This Book For? This book is valuable to all Windows XP users. Even users of Windows NT 4 and 2000 and Windows 95/98/Me may find good information in this book, though it is primarily oriented toward Windows XP. This book is intended for: • General users who use Windows XP at their desks and are responsible for their own computer(s). Typically, these users don't have responsibility for other users' computers, though they may help their friends out from time to time. • System administrators who are responsible for an organization's computers (and perhaps thousands of Windows XP installations). Administrators will be presented with virtually every conceivable problem over a given period of time. Whatever can go wrong will; Murphy's Law is applied double to system administrators. • Help desk staff who support users, even if they don't usually administer the system. Help desk staff roam throughout the organization, providing help and assistance as needed. All help desk people are going to find this book very useful. If you are a user who wants to get the most out of your Windows XP installation (either Home Edition, Professional, or one of the upcoming .NET Server versions), this book is a very good starting point. Think of it this way: If you are a system administrator, this book is one of the tools that you will need to manage and administer your Windows XP network. Manning the help desk? If so, having this book close at hand can save you lots of time and effort. Overview of the Contents This book is made up of four major sections. Part I: Registry Basics In Part I, "Registry Basics," I discuss ways to avoid problems, do backups, and restore the registry, and I cover some of the tools that are used with the registry. The first chapter, "What Is a Registry—and Why?," introduces the registry. You'll learn about the registry's major sections, called hives. This chapter also tells you about the registry's history. Tip The fastest way to access the registry is to use RegEdit.exe, which comes with Windows XP. To access RegEdit.exe, simply click the Start button, then click Run. Type RegEdit in the dialog box and press Enter. The RegEdit window will appear. Chapter 2 is called "Readme.1st: Preventing Disaster!" It jumps right into one of the most important topics in this book: how to avoid getting into trouble. Most Windows XP disasters are registry related, and they are also preventable. Registry problems often arise because we don't have a good backup of the registry, and something comes along and damages it. Once damaged, the registry can be very difficult to recover. Chapter 3, "Anatomy of the Registry: The Blood, Gore, and Guts," is an in-depth analysis of what's in the registry. Each major hive is covered in detail. We'll discuss the way the hives relate to each other, along with how Windows XP manages users in the registry. Tools, tools, and more tools. Chapter 4, "Registry Tools and Tips: Getting the Work Done," takes a close look at the registry tools that are included with Windows XP. The Registry Editor is covered, as well as the Backup utility and the registry software that is included in the Windows XP Resource Kit. In Chapter 5, "Policies: Good for One, Good for All," you learn all about policies in Windows XP. Policies affect specific computers, users, and groups. Part II: Advanced Registry Stuff In this second part of the book, I cover OLE (Object Linking and Embedding), some history of the win.ini and system.ini files, how to remove excess baggage from the registry, registry programming interfaces, and the Performance Monitor entries.