Getting familiar with the Windows Registry
The Windows Registry was introduced with Windows 3.1. Although back then, it primarily stored information for the COM-based components, it was developed over the years. Nowadays, it serves as the hierarchical database as we all know it – storing low-level configuration settings for the Windows operating system, as well as for applications running on it.
Although you can access the registry using multiple ways, we will concentrate in this section on how to access and operate the registry using PowerShell.
The Windows Registry of modern systems usually consists of five root keys. Each of them has their own purpose and contains different settings:
- HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT (HKCR): Hives underneath this root key contain information about COM class registration information and file associations.
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER (HKCU): Contains settings that are specific to the user that is currently logged on. Technically, this root key is just...
