How To Back Up and Restore Registry In Windows

Trouble:

Windows Registry is one of the key component in windows. Windows Registry must always be in healthy and stable state to run Windows properly. It happens many times that Windows Registry get corrupt while you try applying a registry tweak or some times due to some other reason like installing a software or registry cleaning tools.

It is highly recommended to backup your windows registry before applying any registry tweak on your windows, If some thing goes wrong while applying the registry tweak you can use the backup you took which you can restore any time you want.

There are various methods with which you can back up windows. In this post we will share with you simple and easy ways to backup Windows Registry and Restore it in case of a need.

Fix:

Backup Registry

Backing up the windows registry can be done in various ways like using the system restore, Simply Exporting all the the registry keys in to .reg file.

Backup Windows Registry Using System Restore Utility

You just need to create a system restore point before installing any software which might corrupt windows registry. System restore also includes windows registry backup.

1. Open Start Menu >> Programs >> Accessories >> System Tools >> System Restore.

Click Create a restore point, and then click Next, In the Restore point description box, type a name to identify this restore point.

Backup Windows Registry Using Registry Editor

1. Open Start Menu >> Run, type “regedit” and press Enter

2. Click File >> Export

3. Name the backup registry file and select the radio button the bottom of the saving dialog which says “All”

4. That’s it

Restoring Registry

Restore Registry Using Registry Editor

Restoring the registry is even more more easy and similar to the procedure adopted for exporting the registry key

1. Start Menu >> Run, type “regedit” and press Enter

2. Click File >> Import

3. Browse and locate the registry file and click open

4. That’s it.

Restore Registry Using System Restore Utility

If you have taken the backup of the registry using the System Restore Utility, it creates a restore point, you can do a system restore to the same point which you created to get the registry restored to the previous state. For this follow these steps:

1. Open Start Menu >> Programs >> Accessories >> System Tools >> System Restore.

If you don’t want to import or export registry this way you can also use a free tool provided by Microsoft called NT Backup, download it from here

Author + Admin: Rohit Khurana
Software Engineer by profession. I am a part time tech blogger and believe in blogging because I enjoy writing on technology. I also write about Cars and Bikes at www.carblogindia.com. You can catch me on twitter @rohit_khurana. Get in touch with me at RohitKhurana.in.