Creating a Backup of your registry is an essential first step you should be taking prior to doing any registry modifications. Please Note: This guide will always be referenced in any future guides that involve registry edits, as the first step you should be taking.

Click ,

then .

Type regedit then click

Next, Select the Branch of the registry you want to back up, right click on it, and select Export (if you want to backup the entire registry, pick any branch, the option to backup the entire registry will be an option you can select on the save screen). For this example I have chosen HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.

Then, a save screen will pop up. On the bottom left hand corner is the option to Save the entire registry. Pick a location where you want to save the backup, then name the file and click Save.

You now have a backup of your registry OR of a individual branch of your registry (depending on what Export range you selected).

This guide was written by Jason LeDuc. Copyright © 2005-2006. All rights reserved.