Windows Registry question -

I was looking into a way to backup the Windows Registry.  Obviously System Restore is useless if you can't boot windows.  I used a program like this back in the day.  Essentially it backs up all the registry files.

you know: these ones:

Next, select the backup options:

- System registry: The current system registry, usually consisting of
  the files DEFAULT, SAM, SECURITY, SOFTWARE, and SYSTEM.

- Current user registy: The registry files for the currently logged-on
  user, usually NTUSER.DAT and USRCLASS.DAT.

- Other open user registries: Sometimes Windows has a few other user
  registries in memory. Examples for this are "generic" registries,
  e.g. for user "EVERYONE", or registries of other users if you use
  Fast Task Switching in Windows XP. Check this option to backup all
  these additional user registries (if found) as well.

Here they claim that System Restore is just a glorified registry backup tool.

Question:     Should I disable Windows XP’s System Restore function when using ERUNT?

Answer:     Yes! Though System Restore backs up more than just the registry, the registry is essentially all you need to revert your system to a previous state. Advantages of ERUNT over System Restore are that each restore folder is standalone and independent of the others, minimizing the risk of restore failures, and that a restore can easily be done from outside Windows. Also, ERUNT backups usually take up less hard drive space than System Restore’s restore points and may be individually deleted at any time.

Does anyone agree with this ? ...

"Though System Restore backs up more than just the registry, the registry is essentially all you need to revert your system to a previous state."

 Most backup softwares, including the one that ships with Windows, will backup the registry along with designated files.

JamesNT

JamesNT:

Most backup softwares, including the one that ships with Windows

JamesNT

Do you mean this Backup or Restore Wizard ?

ie. the one that generates .bkp files ?

Whoops!  Almost forgot about this conversation - apologies.  

In regards to the Windows backup program, I'm referring to the one found under START | ALL PROGRAMS | ACCESSORIES | SYSTEM TOOLS| Backup

Yes, it does have a wizard that I sometimes use but most of the time do not.

JamesNT 

How to Export the registry from the Help File found in Start - Run- regedit - Help

To export all or part of the registry to a text file

1. Open Registry Editor.
2. On the File menu, click Export.
3. In File name, enter a name for the registry file.
4. Under Export range, do one of the following:
   • To back up the entire registry, click All.
   • To back up only a particular branch of the registry tree, click Selected branch and enter the name of the branch you want to export.
5. Click Save.

R Terry Ellis:

How to Export the registry from the Help File found in Start - Run- regedit - Help

 

 

To export all or part of the registry to a text file

1. Open Registry Editor.
2. On the File menu, click Export.
3. In File name, enter a name for the registry file.
4. Under Export range, do one of the following:
   • To back up the entire registry, click All.
   • To back up only a particular branch of the registry tree, click Selected branch and enter the name of the branch you want to export.
5. Click Save.

In the 98 days, I use to copy these files to a floppy. In the case of inability to reboot to desktop, I would boot to dos, navigate and copy and paste these files back to their original destination.

Now, when ever I make registry changes I just export them first to my c:\downloads/Reg folder which is automatically backed up.

I can't help but wonder if running Windows in a virtual machine on Linux or Mac would be better.  Copy your virtual hard drive every so often and when the windows install goes kaput, just delete the current hard drive image and go back to one of the old ones. Voila, your Windows install is back to life.  Your performance would suffer a little, but for office tasks and 2d graphics it would be fine. As far as cost, it would cost nothing extra - we are using the open source version of VirtualBox on a Ubuntu machine in our office quite succesfully to run XP.

Bryan

As I think about this, it occurs to me that you could probably run Windows on top of Windows...if you were leery of Linux and Mac.  Just do all of your actual installs on the virtual machine and you can nix it or go back to an old copy whenever you like.  Pitfalls: Buying two copies of Windows and having double the virus/trojan/etc risks of just one install of windows.

Bryan