The registry is a central database used by the Windows operating system to track your personal settings and the software and hardware installed on your computer. When you install an application, installation choices are written to the registry. The registry contains 5 major branches:
- HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT – contains information on file-related behavior including what files are associated with what applications
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER – contains the preferences of the current user
- HKEY_USERS – contains the preferences of each user on the system
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE – contains operating system, hardware, and application settings
- HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG – contains hardware settings users can modify for different circumstances
