I need a comprehensive reference guide to the Windows 2000 and Windows NT registries. I particularly need information about essential registry values, including each value's purpose and data value ranges. Do you know if such a reference exists?

A. One of my favorite references is the Help file regentry.hlp in the Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Resource Kit. This file provides exactly the kind of registry reference you need—for NT. Subsequent resource kit updates (e.g., Supplement Two, Supplement Three) include important file updates that enumerate new values that various NT 4.0 service packs introduce.

This registry reference is also available in the Microsoft Windows 2000 Resource Kit and the Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Resource Kit. You'll find it in the main resource kit installation folder (e.g., C:program filesresource kit) with the name regentry.chm. This fully searchable Help file, which Figure 1 shows, is organized alphabetically and by registry hive (e.g., HKEY_ LOCAL_MACHINE, HKEY_CURRENT_USER). Microsoft promises to periodically update this and other resource kit files on its Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/ windows2000/library/resources/reskit/default.asp.

Many other good registry references might interest you. A helpful online resource is the Windows 2000 Magazine Network's Windows NT/2000 Tips, Tricks, Registry Hacks and more... Web site at http://www.jsiinc.com/reghack.htm. At the Windows IT Library Web site at http://www.WindowsITlibrary.com, you'll find two free books about the subject: Tim Daniels's 1001 Secrets for Windows NT Registry (29th Street Press, 1997) and Kathy Ivens's Optimizing the Windows Registry (Hungry Minds, 1998). At your favorite bookstore, you might look into Sandra Osborne's The Windows NT Registry: A Settings Reference (New Riders Publishing, 1998).

Click here to view image

Figure 1: The resource kit's regentry.chm file