How To Manually Back Up And Restore The Registry In Windows XP

This article is part of Windows XP Backup Strategies For Home Users

In XP you can backup and restore the registry manually by using export/import. It is best to only backup/restore specific sections of the registry in this manner.

Open the registry:

Press the Windows + R keys > type regedit and hit Enter. You locate specific sections by clicking the + sign next to each entry. As an example I'll back up the computer name.

It's specific location is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ComputerName\ActiveComputerName

You can see the name is TEST.

To save this section right-click on the section in the left pane you wish to back up and choose Export. Make sure that Selected branch is checked and click Save.

To view the output:

Navigate to the directory you saved the file in. STOP. Do not click on the file. Instead right-click on it and choose Open with and choose Notepad. If that isn't in the right-click menu use Choose program and find Notepad.

To restore:

If you want to restore that particular section you'll double-click on the icon and answer Yes in the resulting screen. In many instances you'll need to reboot for the changes to take effect.

The file looks like this when opened in Notepad.

You're done!