Microsoft Windows Registry Guide, Second Edition

Power Users First, Then IT Professionals

Even the most focused IT professional is a power user at heart, so this book presents information for power users first. Here are the first six chapters, which make up Part I, “Registry Overview”:

• Chapter 1, “Learning the Basics.”

  This chapter gives an overview of the registry. It includes common terminology and an explanation of how Windows organizes the registry. You'll learn important concepts, such as the different types of data that you can store in the registry and the difference between little-endian and big-endian storage of double-word values. What exactly is a GUID, anyway? You'll find out here.

• Chapter 2, “Using Registry Editor.”

  Registry Editor is your window into the registry, so this chapter teaches you how to use it effectively.

• Chapter 3, “Backing Up the Registry.”

  Backing up the registry protects your settings. This chapter shows quick and easy ways to back up settings, as well as ways to back up the entire registry.

• Chapter 4, “Hacking the Registry.”

  This chapter is a power user's dream come true because it describes some of the greatest hacks for Windows, such as how to customize Windows Explorer.

• Chapter 5, “Mapping Tweak UI.”

  Microsoft now has an updated version of Tweak UI, and this chapter describes it in detail. You not only learn how to use Tweak UI—you'll learn exactly where in the registry Tweak UI stores each setting so that you can use your own scripts to apply these settings.

• Chapter 6, “Configuring Servers.”

  This chapter describes some common registry customizations for Windows Server 2003.

Part II, “Registry in Management,” contains information useful to both power users and IT professionals. In this section, you'll learn how to manage the registry and how to use the registry as a management tool.

• Chapter 7, “Using Registry-Based Policy.”

  This chapter focuses on Group Policy and system policies. You'll learn the differences between them and how each policy can be used to manage computers and users. Also—and this is important—you'll learn how to build your own policy templates for Group Policy.

• Chapter 8, “Configuring Windows Security.”

  Windows secures settings in the registry. This chapter shows you how to manage the registry's security. It also shows you how to selectively poke holes in the registry's security so that you can deploy and run legacy applications on Windows. Last, this chapter describes how to customize new security features in Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2).

• Chapter 9, “Troubleshooting Problems.”

  Things sometimes go wrong. This chapter shows you how to recover if they do.

• Chapter 10, “Finding Registry Settings.”

  Finding the location where Windows stores a setting in the registry is easy, as long as you know which tools to use. I'll give you a hint: Word 2003 is the second-best registry tool. You'll also learn about tools that you can use to remotely monitor the registry.

• Chapter 11, “Scripting Registry Changes.”

  A plethora of methods for customizing registry edits are available to you. This chapter teaches the best of them, including REG files, INF files, and Microsoft Windows Installer (MSI) package files. It also describes tools such as Console Registry Tool for Windows, which comes free with Windows. This is useful for editing the registry from batch files.

Part III, “Registry in Deployment,” is primarily for IT professionals. This part of the book helps you use the registry to deploy Windows and Office more effectively. It includes the following chapters:

• Chapter 12, “Deploying User Profiles.”

  Default user profiles are an effective way to deploy default settings to users. This chapter describes not only default user profiles, but mandatory and roaming user profiles as well. This chapter is unique because it describes a useful process for building profiles that ensures that they'll work for all users in your organization.

• Chapter 13, “Mapping Windows Installer.”

  Windows Installer is a relatively new service that provides a better way to install applications. This chapter describes how Windows Installer interacts with the registry. It will also help you clean up the registry when things go wrong with Windows Installer—based applications.

• Chapter 14, “Deploying with Answer Files.”

  This chapter shows you how to script a Windows installation and how to add registry settings.

• Chapter 15, “Cloning Disks with Sysprep.”

  Many companies that previously maintained up to 50 Windows 2000 disk images now can use a single Windows XP disk image. They do this by generalizing their disk images so that they work on the widest possible variety of hardware. That's the topic of this chapter. This chapter also shows how Sysprep interacts with the registry.

• Chapter 16, “Configuring Windows PE.”

  This chapter describes how to create and customize Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) CD images.

• Chapter 17, “Deploying Office 2003 Settings.”

  A big part of an Office 2003 Editions deployment project is deploying user settings. This chapter describes a variety of ways to do just that. You'll learn about tools that come with the Microsoft Office 2003 Editions Resource Kit, for example, as well as techniques for using them.

• Chapter 18, “Fixing Common IT Problems.”

  This is a special chapter that addresses the comments and questions that I frequently receive from IT professionals. How should you handle coexistence issues between Microsoft Access 97 and Access 2003? That's just one of many IT issues that you can address by using the registry.

Part IV, “Appendixes,” is a reference that describes the contents of the registry. In the few pages available in this book, I can't possibly describe every registry value. But Part IV describes some of the most interesting settings. These appendixes describe the relationships between different portions of the registry, including how a variety of registry keys and values interact.