The easiest type of registry backup to make is the parital backup. Rather than backing up the entire registry, you simply backup the portion you’ll be working on. If you screw up, you can quickly and easily restore the affected keys without touching anything else.

Say you want to make some changes to the key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

This happens to be responsible for running programs when Windows starts.

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Just open the Registry Editor, navigate to this key, and select File ➝ Export. Type a filename and save the Registry patch file on your Desktop.

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Save the file in your documents folder.  Name it with something descriptive so you will remember what it contains – incase you need to restore from this backup file.

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To restore from this backed up registry patch just double click this “reg” file to reload the backed up registries.

Another way is to create a restore point.  Below are steps on how to do it in Vista and 7:

  1. Click Start , type systempropertiesprotection in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER. If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Allow.
  2. Wait for Windows to search for available disks and most recent restore points. In the System Properties dialog box, on the System Protection tab, click Create,
  3. Type a name for the restore point and then click Create.
  4. After the restore point has been created successfully, click OK two times.

Below are the steps on how to restore the registry from the restore points created above:

  1. Click Start, type systempropertiesprotection in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Allow.
  2. In the System Properties dialog box, on the System Protection tab, click System Restore,
  3. In the System Restore dialog box select Choose a different restore point, and then click Next
  4. Select the restore point that you want to use, and then click Next.
  5. Confirm your restore point, and then click Finish System restore restores the selected Windows Vista configuration and then restarts the computer.
  6. Log on to the computer. When the System Restore confirmation page appears, click OK

Backing up is a necessary task for developers and admins – it keeps us safe from wrong edits and deletions.

Ben Carigtan shows you how it’s done!