The Windows Registry on your computer system holds just about all of the most important information about your system, like what kind of software is installed on the system, what kind of hardware you happen to have installed, as well as your Windows settings and how you have Windows set up. If you are experiencing unexplainable crashes, system freezes and other odd behavior, you could be having registry troubles. For example, each time you in

stall a new program on your computer, it creates a registry entry. If you uninstall that program, and then decide you want it back again later, so you install it again, you could end up with entries in the registry that confuse your computer.

For this reason it is important to keep a good, clean back up copy of your Windows Registry, preferably made at a time when your computer was running really well. If you start to experience crazy computer behavior, you can just restore your registry from that back up file, and it may solve the problems for you! We will show you two ways to restore your registry from a back up file you have previously created. One way is simple and easy, but you run the risk of messing up your machine even more if you are not careful. The other method is more involved, but more effective and safer for you.

The first method: simply go to your back up folder, highlight all of your back up files, and right click. Select copy. Then close that window, open up your C drive folder where the original system.dat and user.dat files are located, and right click. Select “paste.” When it asks if you want to overwrite the files, choose “yes.” And you are done! Just be sure that you are not removing files from the C folder or anything, or you could end up with a huge mess on your hands.

The more complicated but more effective method involves booting into Command Prompt Only mode. On start up, press F8 before the welcome screen, to get to the options list. Choose “Command Prompt Only” and when that opens, type the commands below (the ones in bold font) exactly as you see them here, in this exact sequence, to restore your registry.

cd c:\windows
attrib user.dat -h -r
attrib system.dat -h -r
cd c:\backup
copy user.dat c:\windows
copy system.dat c:\windows
copy win.ini c:\windows
copy system.ini c:\windows
cd c:\windows
attrib user.dat +h + r
attrib system.dat +h +r
Once you are done with that, you should have restored your registry correctly. Reboot the computer and see how things are doing!