How to make a backup of your Registry

In this post we will see how to create a backup by using Registry using registry editor, Or Ccleaner, and then how to restore that backup!

Registry is one of the most crucial part of your windows, change one value , delete one key and you can jeopardize your Windows, or  cause it to malfunction or stop its booting. This is some real serious stuff which you shouldn’t touch if you’re beginner.
But if you’re into Hacking or like tweaking things, there’s a very high chance that you’ll need to make changes in the registry. In few of the earlier posts, like Remove Task Manager Virus, Change Windows XP key, we saw how to edit the values in registry. But we are humans, so if we unintentionally make some mistake, it will harm you and your machine!

So it’s always better to keep a backup of the registry before making any changes. When you create a back-up, what you’re actually doing is creating a ‘.reg’ which consists of the current Registry keys and values. If you make some changes and windows starts behaving abnormally, and you don’t know where you made that change, just restore the backup! So its better to always keep a backup before doing some changes in Registry.

Lets us first see how to create a backup using registry editor!

1. Start –> run –> regedit
   Enter regedit in run.
   

   Regedit

    

2. File –> Export
   Go to File and select export.
   

   Export

    

3. Give a name and save.
   
   

   Name the backup

4. Check the file.
   
   

   Check the file

   
   

If you’re creating a backup using Ccleaner,
NOTE : It will only create a backup of the keys it is going to delete!
It won’t create a backup of whole Registry, but just the changes that it is going to make! But if you used Ccleaner and deleted some values, and your computer starts acting weird, just double-click on the backup and restore the deleted files.
Open Ccleaner, Go to Registry, Scan for issues.

1. Fix Selected issues –> Yes
   A message box will come, asking you if you want a backup of the registry. Click Yes.
   

   CCleaner backup

2. Give the backup a name.
   
   

   name the backup

3. Save it.

Now if you want to restore that backup, you can do it in 2 easy steps!

1. Open regedit –> File –> Import.
   
   

   File –> Import

2. Select the file and click ‘Open’.
   If you created a backup earlier, go to that location, and select the backup file.
   Note : You’ll only see the ‘.reg’ files here.
   

   Select the .reg file