What files make up the registry, and where are they?

John Savill

March 4, 1999

1 Min Read
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A. The files that make up the registry are stored in %systemroot%/system32/config directory and consist of

  • SAM - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESAM

  • SECURITY - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESecurity

  • software - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftware

  • system - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystem & HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG

  • default - HKEY_USERS.DEFAULT

  • Ntuser.dat - HKEY_CURRENT_USER (this file is stored in %SystemRoot%Profiles%username%)

There are also other files with different extensions for some of them

  • .alt - Contains a backup copy of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystem hive. Only System has a .alt file

  • .log - A log of changes to the keys and values for the hive

  • .sav - A copy of the hive as it looks at the end of the text mode stage in setup

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