What Is An Operating System?

it is the store house of all the settings that make all programs run. back in the days of windows 3.1/11 the programs all had individual files called ini files. - We still have them in the current windows for backward compatability. Look for win.ini as an example - JUST DON'T ALTER IT. With win95 and later ALL the ini files were combined into one big system called the registry. BTW with this windows itself is one of those programs.

so it's not a directory to find where they are but rather the settings? is that right? And what are the different hkey options for? And what is HKCU an HCLM?

Here are some keys in full A HKLM :- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active Setup and a HKCU HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Appearance Get a copy of Reg Lite

QUOTE

Please download Reg Lite from here: http://www.resplendence.com/download/reglite.exe Once it is downloaded double click to install.

whats the difference between regedit, reglite, and regedit32?

Regedit.exe is the normal registry editor that comes built into Windows and is critical to the operation of the OS. Regedt32.exe was supposed to be the new and improved registry editor and was included in Windows 2000 and NT. It had new features such as setting security permissions, allowed you to work with REG_EXPAND_SZ and REG_MULTI_SZ values, and allowed you to save as hive files. In Windows XP, both of the files have been merged so now you get the searching capabilities of regedit.exe and the extra capabilities of regedt32.exe in one. Registrar Lite is a 3rd party registry editor that makes searching and editing the registry much easier.

What exactly are dll's?

That question was asked in the learning hall last week - look for the question - or use the search to find it.