Importing and Exporting Registry Keys

Registrar Registry Manager allows you to import and export both Windows registration files and registry hive files.

Importing registration files

To import a registration file, choose Import .reg file from the File menu. You will be given the option to browse to your .reg file. After selecting, the contents of the file will  be imported (merged) into the local registry.

Exporting registration files

In order to export a registry key, ensure the key you wish to export is selected (its title will also be displayed in the address bar). Now choose Export .reg file from the File menu. If you wish to export the entire registry, select the top of the tree (titled Registry). Note that only the rootkeys HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE  and HKEY_USERS get exported because all other rootkeys are included (they can be found as subkeys of any of these two rootkeys).

Warnings about Registration files

  RegEdit compatible registration files are suitable for creating distributable registry scripts but should not be used for backing up or storing data. Because of bugs in all existing versions of regedit.exe, certain registry values which got exported in a registration file may just get ignored when reimported. This problem exists with both ANSI and UNICODE reg files.

Because Registrar uses the same format of registration file as regedit.exe, you cannot solve this problem by using Registrar for importing and exporting registration files.

It is also possible that certain registry keys do not get exported because the user who is currently logged on may have insufficient permissions to read them. Typically, a reg file does not contain any information on classes, security, permissions and ownership settings.

To backup your registry, choose Backup Registry from the File menu, or read more on Backing up and Restoring your registry

Online Help Topics

Introduction

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