See ???The Structure of the Registry,???
earlier in this chapter, for details.
The Local Backup
The easiest type of Registry backup to make is the local backup, akin to the
local anesthetic. Rather than backing up the entire Registry, you simply back
up the portion you??™ll be working on. If you screw up, you can quickly and easily
restore the affected keys without touching anything else.
Say you want to make some changes to the key, HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\
Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run, which happens to be responsible for
running programs when Windows starts. Just open the Registry Editor, navigate
to this key, and select File ??? Export. Type a filename and save the Registry
patch file on your Desktop. (See ???Export and Import Data with Registry
Patches,??? earlier in this chapter, for more information on this feature.)
Make a mistake and want to restore the backup? Just delete the key(s) you
changed, and double-click the Registry patch to load it back in.
Of course, Registry patch files can be hard to keep track of, particularly if you
change a setting and only discover two weeks later that it??™s caused a problem.
In this case, you can make an easy-to-find backup right in the Registry.
Before you make any changes to the Registry, make a patch file as just described.
Then, rename the key in which you??™ll be working by adding .backup to the end
of the key name. For instance, if you want to make a change to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Highlight the Run key, press the F2 key (or right-click and select Rename),
and change the name to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run.
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