17th February 2000

The system registry is most certainly not a toy; one wrong move and you can effectively break Windows. It's a calculated risk, but one worth taking at times. Launch REGEDIT.EXE to take a look at your OS's innards; it has more keys than the average custodian. You should always make a backup of the SYSTEM.DAT and USER.DAT files before doing any diving. There's another way which may be quicker (and slightly more efficient). You can delete any component in the registry, but you can also save it beforehand. Select a branch you're thinking of removing, but before you do -- export it into an appropriately-named REG file. Upon completing that operation, you're in the clear. If your hack doesn't work, simply 'Merge' the REG file back into the Registry. Of course, it may take a reboot or two for Windows to run properly again, but without this additional safeguard, you're playing with fire.