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Webistry: Online Resources for Registry Tweakers

There's as much fiction floating around the Web about the Windows Registry as there is fact. These are the sites we've found to offer the most reliable information about the operating system's plumbing.

Tap Microsoft's knowledge: Two great places to start your Registry education are Microsoft's TechNet site and its Help and Support site. Both have search engines that provide quick solutions to many vexing problems related to the Registry and other Windows components. You can enter a Registry path, such as HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\ Windows\CurrentVersion, or just a part of the path to get information about a specific Registry key or setting. To limit your search to a particular version of Windows, use the options at the advanced search page. Use other keywords to find helpful articles of a more general nature. For example, I searched TechNet for the word registry and discovered "Inside the Registry," a useful (if slightly dated) article.

Try a Knowledge Base digest: Don't want to rev up Microsoft's Knowledge Base search engine directly? No worries. James Eshelman has selected top KB articles from Microsoft and posted links to them. Eshelman maintains the site as an ad-free service, so if you find it useful, click the page's Donate to this site link and help him out.

Visit Wayne's Registry world: Originally called "Wayne's NT Registry Tips and Hacks," this compendium of useful Registry articles, tips, and tricks by wunderkind Wayne Maples and others is now part of the larger WindowsNetworking.com. The tips are for Windows NT, 2000, XP, and 2003 Server, but of course there is a lot of overlap. You can browse for Windows 2000 Registry tips as well as for information on XP's Registry.

It's About all you need: About.com doesn't provide information just for the generalist. You can also find a lot of Registry hacks and tips at this venerable site. Its "Focus on Windows" section includes pages of Registry tips. Check out its links to overviews, general guidance, and tip lists, and see its links to specific Registry tweaks.

Find a guiding light: Formerly RegEdit.com, WinGuides contains sections on Registry tools, instructive background information, and useful tweaks.

Contributing Editor Scott Dunn writes the Windows Tips column.