The Registry Editor makes changing advanced Windows settings easy. In fact, most tutorials you find here will include a registry method to get things done. While it is easy to edit, it is always recommended to back up the registry before making changes to it. That way, you can restore the registry if something goes wrong or if you need to revert changes. For example, I recently modified the registry to disable caps lock. However, I later wanted to undo the change. Since I had made a backup before changing the registry, I was able to restore it quickly and easily.
In this tutorial, I will show you the step-by-step process for backing up the entire registry or a specific key and restoring it when needed. Most of the time, it is sufficient to back up a specific key or folder that you are trying to edit. A full backup is useful when making extensive changes in different sections simultaneously. Let’s get started.
Table of Contents:
- Backup specific registry folder or key
- Backup whole registry
- Restore the Windows registry
- Troubleshooting steps
Before You Start
- You need administrator rights to open the Registry Editor.
- In the Registry Editor, a registry key is like a folder in the file system, shown in the left-hand sidebar.
How To Back Up a Specific Registry Key or Folder
More often than not, you will be editing a specific registry key (folder). In such cases, you can simply back up that specific key. If you want to be a bit more cautious, you can back up the entire section, i.e., root, user, machine, users, and config. This way, you can restore that key without affecting others. Here’s how to do it:
- Press the Start button.
- Search for Registry Editor and click Open.
- Right-click on the key or folder you want to back up.
- Select the Export option.
- Go to a folder, enter a name in the “File name” field, and click Save.
- With that, the selected registry key (folder) is backed up to the chosen location.
Detailed Steps (With Screenshots)
First, open the Start menu, search for Registry Editor, and click Open. Once it opens, select the folder (key) you want to backup, right-click on it, and select Export.
Note: To backup an entire section like root, user, machine, users, and config, right-click on the section folder and select Export.
The above action opens the “Export” dialog. In it, go to a folder where you want to save the registry backup file, enter a name in the “File name” field, and click Save.
Important note: Ensure the “Selected branch” option is selected at the bottom.
That’s it. You’ve successfully backed up the Windows Registry. The backup file will be in the folder you selected earlier.
How to Back Up the Entire Windows Registry
If you want to back up the entire registry, follow the below steps:
- Press the Start button.
- Search for Registry Editor and click Open.
- Right-click on the Computer option at the top of the left sidebar.
- Select the Export option.
- Go to a folder, enter a name in the “File name” field, and click Save.
- With that, you’ve created a full registry backup.
Detailed Steps (With Screenshots)
First, open the Registry Editor on your computer. You can do that by searching for Registry Editor in the Start menu. Alternatively, open the Run dialog box (press Windows key + R), enter “regedit” and click OK.
Once it opens, right-click on the Computer option at the top of the left sidebar and select the Export option.
Note: If you cannot find the “Computer” option, scroll to the top in the left sidebar.
In the Export dialog, go to the folder where you want to save the registry file, enter a name for the backup file in the “File name” field, and click the Save button.
Note: Ensure that the “All” option is selected under the “Export Range” section at the bottom.
As soon as you click the Save button, Windows will start the backup process. During this time, the Registry Editor window may appear frozen and display “Not responding.” This is normal. Just wait for a few minutes. Once the backup is complete, the window will return to normal.
Once the backup is complete, you will find the registry backup file in the folder you selected in the earlier step.
Keep in mind that the complete registry backup can be quite large, depending on your computer, installed applications, and other files. For example, in my case, the backup file is 366 MB. To check the file size of your backup, right-click on the file and select Properties. You will see the file size next to “Size” under the “General” tab.
How to Restore the Windows Registry
To restore the Windows Registry using a backup file (.reg), follow the below steps.
- Press “Windows key + E” to open File Explorer.
- Go to the backup folder.
- Double-click the .reg file.
- Click Yes in the information window.
- Click OK.
- With that, you’ve restored the Windows Registry using the backup reg file.
Detailed Steps (With Screenshots)
To restore the Windows registry, open File Explorer, go to the folder where you saved the backup file, and double-click on it. As soon as you double-click on the .reg file, you will see a prompt asking whether you would like to add or modify the keys using the backup file. Since we want to restore the registry, click Yes.
That’s it. The backup is restored instantly, and you will receive a prompt letting you know the same. Click OK to close the info dialog.
Troubleshooting Steps
Sometimes, the backup may not be restored completely, and you will also see an error message “Cannot import reg: Not all data was successfully written to the registry. Some keys are open by the system or other process, or you have insufficient privileges to perform this operation.”
Don’t freak out. This error may occur due to insufficient permissions. i.e., you don’t have admin rights. To fix it, open the Start menu, search for Command Prompt, and select the Run as administrator option.
In the Command Prompt window, run the following command while replacing the dummy folder path with the actual path of the backup directory.
cd /d "D:\path\to\backup\folder"
Next, enter the file name along with the .reg extension and press enter.
A quick tip: Type the first few letters of the file name and press the Tab key to auto-complete the file name.
Click Yes in the confirmation prompt to restore the registry.
That’s it. By following the above steps, the error is fixed.
Wrapping Up — Backing Up and Restoring Windows Registry
As you can see, creating a quick Registry backup is simple and only takes a few seconds. So, don’t ever ignore creating a backup before editing the Registry. As I mentioned earlier, in most cases, backing up the specific registry key or section is sufficient. However, if you are modifying multiple registry values in multiple keys, I recommend creating a full Windows Registry backup. In fact, you can even enable automatic registry backup and create a system restore point just to be on the safe side.
Image credit: Michael’s Registry icon
