Overview of Registry Rootkeys
This table gives an overview of all common registry rootkeys. Some rootkeys are not absolute rootkeys but are symbolic links to subkeys of one of the two main rootkeys HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and HKEY_USERS. This explains why only these two registry rootkeys get searched when using the search functionality in Registrar to perform a global search on the entire registry.
Rootkey | Abbreviation | Type of rootkey | Points to |
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE | HKLM | absolute | - |
HKEY_USERS | HKU | absolute | - |
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT | HKLM | symbolic link | HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes |
HKEY_CURRENT_USER | HKCU | symbolic link | a subkey of HKEY_USERS containing user profile |
HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG | HKCC | symbolic link | HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ CurrentControlSet\ Control\IDConfigDB\Hardware |
HKEY_DYN_DATA | HKDD | virtual rootkey | Virtual registry rootkey |