Many times it happens that some program or application alters the registry files in a way which doesn’t fit with the system and causes certain problems in the system. It is advised that Windows registry be regularly backed up to be used in case of any problem due to changes made in the registry files. Although System Restore option is present as a Windows tool, but still many a times it is better to take a back up of registry files as restore may not be able to revert back to earlier conditions.Also you may just want to backup only a particular registry and not all of them.

Following are two methods for the same :

METHOD 1

1. Click Start -> Run

2. Type regedit. Click Ok.

3. Move to the key you want to edit and click on it.

4. On the file menu, click Export.

5. In the dialog box, select the location where you wish to save the registry file backup and click Save.

Now the file is saved as.Reg file and you can save this backed up file anywhere.

To restore the registry file settings , just double click on this .reg file, it automatically merges its contents into the registry

METHOD 2

You can also use a console registry tool -Reg.exe to edit the registry.

To export a particular registry key and all its subkeys, use this command at the command prompt.

REG EXPORT HKCUSoftwareMozilla c:Mozilla.REG

To view the Registry file, open the file in notepad.

It is recommended to regularly take back up of the registry files.