How Dangerous is Editing the Windows Registry?

[Gifovaco]

No, not nearly everything, but most important things.

I get that, my incorrect exactness... But it do change what 'She' cares about....haha

 

[Tom.G]

Some details of the registry format can be found here:

http://www.sentinelchicken.com/data/TheWindowsNTRegistryFileFormat.pdf

KB822705 on the Microsoft website

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Registry+Overview+Windows+NT+site:microsoft.com

https://www.google.com/search?&hl=en&q=The+Windows+NT+Registry+File+Format.pdf

https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/19143045/windows-nt-registry-file-regf-format-specification



Books:
Windows XP Registry, ISBN0-7821-2987-0 (SYBEX)
Windows XP Registry Guide, ISBN 0-7356-1788-0 (Microsoft Press)
The Windows 95 Registry, ISBN 1-55828-494-X (MIS Press)
Inside The Windows 95 Registery, ISBN 1-55692-170-4 (O'Reilly & Associates)

Cheers,
Tom

 

[PeterDonis]

A good idea is probably to run one or more of these programs who “claims” to clean up your registry. But be careful which ones you select. Perhaps that would take care of your problem without you having to manually edit the registry.

No, this is not good advice. The very fact that you put "claims" in scare quotes should be a red flag.

 

[PeterDonis]

curious as to do something I want to do on My Win10 PC, which requires editing the registry.

I'm having difficulty imagining something requiring that that would be worth the risk.

 

[sbrothy]

No, this is not good advice. The very fact that you put "claims" in scare quotes should be a red flag.

Touche. One can check them out before running them though. Some may be malware but not all of them. But yeah, if you’re at the OP’s tech level choosing correctly might not be so easy. Disregard my faulty advice.

 

[Tom.G]

TL;DR Summary: I've seen, heard of people editing the registry . Some , though, warn of the dangers of incorrect editing. Who should we believe?

Hi, curious as to do something I want to do on My Win10 PC, which requires editing the registry.

You may get somewhat better answers, and perhaps even suggestions, if you clarify what that "something" is that you want to try.

 

[PAllen]

Sure, you can back it up. The better question, though, is whether you can restore it. If the corruption is a little bad, no problem. If it's very bad, and Windows won't start, how do you plan to restore it?

If you have a system image backup and repair disc made, you can always restore after trying a registry change.