When I try something out or develop something new I don’t always do this in a VM, I use directly my productive system (I wouldn’t recommend it but I do it anyway). But by changes in the registry you can bring the PC in such a state that you have to set it up again. To avoid this, I look at this blog a way to create a backup of the registry and this can be restored at a later date.

What it the Windows Registry

The Windows Registry (RegEdit) is a storage the store settings for the Windows OS as well as for apps. The Registry is a hierarchical database. The registry hold configuration used by services, kernel, device drivers and others.

Create a backup

• Open the Registry Editor via Start menu or Run and insert regedit

• Click File -> Export

• Insert an File name and click Save to backup the registry in the selected location.

Restore from a backup

• Open the Registry Editor via Start menu or Run and insert regedit

• Click File -> Import

• Select the Backup and click Open

• Wait until the Import is done

When you get this message click OK open the RegEdit as Admin and make sure that alle Applications are closed. Start an new import attempt.

• When the import was successfully restart the device.

Conclusion

Especially when you want to try something on a system it is sometimes good to have a backup of the registry to jump back to the previous state. It is really easy and fast to create such a backup and restore it.

Stay healthy, Cheers
Jannik