Technical Reference to the Registry

How to Find a Registry Entry

The Technical Reference to the Windows 2000 Registry is designed to look and operate like Regedit, a Windows registry editor included in the operating system. Registry elements appear in this file in their registry path, just as they do in Regedit.

To find the description of a registry subtree, key, subkey, or entry, click the books and pages in the table of contents pane. A description of each element appears in the contents pane. For example, to find a description of the DNS service subkey, click the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, SYSTEM, CurrentControlSet, Services, and DNS folders, just as you do in Regedit.

How to Search

If you do not know where in the registry a certain element appears, use the Search tab.

How to Find Generic Subkeys

This file includes generic subkeys that, although they do not appear in the registry themselves, represent a group of subkeys with common characteristics. You can identify these generic subkeys by the brackets surrounding their names. For example, the entries that are common to most service subkeys appear in the <Service-name> subkey. If you are looking for a common entry and do not find it in the subkey in which it appears in your registry, look for a generic subkey. It usually appears first in the list of subkeys under a key.

Limitations of this Reference

If you cannot find a registry element, it might be because it is not included in this reference. The Technical Reference to the Windows 2000 Registry does not describe the entire registry. Some registry elements are specific to your registry. Others are part of the Windows internal code and are not meaningful to users. Many entries just store values you have set in Windows. This reference primarily documents entries that users might need to change that cannot be changed by using the Windows interface or the administrative tools provided with Windows.

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