Windows Registry contains five Hives and hives contain Keys and Sub keys and their respective Values.
For Registry Editing:
Start > Run > Regedit
HKEY_CURRENT_USER: Contains the configuration information for the user who is currently logged on. The user’s folders, screen colors, and Control Panel settings are stored here.
HKEY_USERS: Contains all the actively loaded user profiles on the computer. HKEY_CURRENT_USER is a sub key of HKEY_USERS.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE: Contains configuration information particular to the computer (for any user).
HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG: Contains information about the hardware profile that is used by the local computer at system start-up.
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT: The information that is stored here makes sure that the correct program opens when you open a file by using Windows Explorer.
Types of Keys
Binary Value (REG_BINARY): Raw binary data. Most hardware component information is stored as binary data and is displayed in Registry Editor in hexadecimal format
DWORD Value (REG_DWORD): Data represented by a number that is 4 bytes long (a 32-bit integer). Can also contain binary, hexadecimal, or decimal format
Expandable String Value (REG_EXPAND_SZ): A variable-length data string. This data type includes variables that are resolved when a program or service uses the data
String Value (REG_SZ): A fixed-length text string
Multi-String Value (REG_MULTI_SZ): Values that contain lists or multiple values in a form that people can read are generally this type.
