The registry is stored in 5 files called?

Answer 1

Collectively, the Windows system registry files are called hives. They are stored in:

%SystemRoot%\System32\Config\ - %SystemRoot% is often C:\Windows or C:\WinNT

Here are the names of the files:

• Default – HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT
• Sam – HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SAM
• Security – HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SECURITY
• Software – HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE
• System – HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM

Also, the following file which contains HKEY_CURRENT_USER is found in each user's profile folder:

%USERPROFILE%\Ntuser.dat

In addition, under Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Server 2003, the user-specific Usrclass.dat file is used for file associations and COM information:

• %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows\Usrclass.dat (path is localized) – HKEY_USERS\_Classes (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes)

Windows Vista and higher continue to use it but, the path was changed to:

• %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Usrclass.dat (path is not localized) alias %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Usrclass.dat – HKEY_USERS\_Classes (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes)