In an article that I wrote over on PC Mech we spoke of making a registry backup by using System Restore.

“System Restore backs up your registry. It also backs up some other things, but mainly it backs up the registry. If you’re installing a new driver, for instance, it’ll record the system state before the driver update was installed. If you get problems with the new software, it’ll revert you back to how things were if you ask it to.”

“If you are asked to back up your registry, set a new System Restore point. System Restore is an excellent tool for the job.”

- But although System Restore does back-up the registry, it’s not a simple registry backup in itself. Also, if you were to create a restore-point one week, then the following week restore your box to the last restore-point, you’d lose all the changes made in the last week; not just the one or two you want to get rid of.

What we need is an old-style registry backup; just like we used to make in Windows 9x. – And it’s not hard to make one either: -

The Process: -

Call up the run command: -

In Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7: Press Windows and R keys together.

Type “regedit” and press enter.

Select “Computer”.

Click “File” in the toolbar and select “Export”.

Type in the name you choose for the backup, also select the location at which you want it to be saved, and click “Save”.

That’s it: You have just made a fully accessible registry backup. I would suggest making one of these at least every week and storing it in a folder with all the previous ones you’ve made; for reference purposes. You might like to store this folder on a remote (NAS) server or external HDD, as each registry-backup you make will most likely be a few hundred megabytes in size, and after a month the gigabytes will start clocking up bigtime. It may be an idea to create a new folder every month to house that month’s registry-backups, and delete folders full of registry-backups that are more than 6 months old in order to save space.

If you want to restore your registry, you just click on the file that you’d like to restore from, and all the settings in that file will be copied to the registry.

If you’re altering the registry in any way; it would be an idea to take a backup in this way, so that you can save time by restoring the .reg file if you manage to screw up your registry in some way, rather than the long tedious process of using System Restore.

Do you edit your registry ever? (I do occasionally.) Do you back up your registry ever?