Windows Vista®: Backing Up the Registry

In this demonstration, you'll learn how to back up the Windows Vista registry.

Before you make any changes to the registry, back it up. This is very important; it could mean the difference between a five-minute recovery from an error and a four-hour recovery. If you change something incorrectly in the registry, you could render your entire system inoperable, so it's important to have a back up just in case you need to reinstall it.

Click Start, type regedit in the Start Search text box, and then press Enter.

Click Continue if prompted for permission.

In the Registry Editor window, ensure Computer is highlighted in the left pane. If not, select it.

Select File > Export from the menu bar.

In the Registry Editor window, type a file name in the File name text box.

Leave the Save as type drop-down list set to Registration Files (*.reg).

Select the location where you want the back up file stored.

A good place to keep your registry backup is on a thumb (flash) drive or another external drive. Avoid using a network drive; if you save the backup file to a network drive, you might not have access to the file during a failure.

Click Save.

This process might take several seconds depending on the number of programs you have installed on your computer.

In this demonstration, you learned how to back up the Windows Vista registry.

Be sure to create a new backup each time you install a new program or modify your system in some significant way.