Making changes to the registry in Windows has been a fact of PC life for a long time now. Before making any changes it’s always a good idea to make a backup of the registry just in case. Many registry modifications take effect immediately and there is no “undo” function. If you make a mistake while editing the registry, it can cause major problems, including a non-bootable system.

The process of backing up the registry basically means exporting a registry data to a file that you either save on your hard drive, a network drive or some type of removable media (i.e. usb thumbnail drive). Althought there are a number of different ways to save the exported data, the safest way is to save the key you’re going to modify as a registry hive file. This creates an exact copy of the key. Then if something goes wrong, you can import the key to the registry and it will overwrite any changes you have made.

For a more detailed explanation of how to back up (and restore) the registry, see:

http://www.theeldergeek.com/windows_xp_registry.htm