FROM THE AUG 1997 ISSUE OF HOMEPC MAGAZINE	

		How to bridle your Registry
		      By Richard Fisco

Q: I want to back up my new PC's Windows 95 Registry, but I read
somewhere that the Registry can't simply be copied to a floppy disk. Is
that true? If so, what procedure should I follow for this backup? Also, how would I restore the Registry if that ever becomes necessary?

A: You can indeed back up the Windows 95 Registry to a floppy disk. But
first, for those who may not be familiar with it, let's discuss what the
Registry is.

The Registry, which Microsoft calls a "central information database for
Windows 95," stores hardware-, configuration- and user-specific data. It
consists of two files, system.dat and user.dat, normally found in the
C:\Windows folder; the system.dat file contains vital information about
your PC's hardware and how it's configured, while the user.dat file holds settings based on your preferences, such as wallpaper, color scheme and screen saver.


If the Registry becomes corrupt, it can cause your computer to hang or
crash, disable certain features, or even prevent Windows 95 from starting up at all. That's why making a backup on floppy disk is definitely a good idea, particularly before installing new software or making any system changes.

Actually, Windows 95 makes its own backup of those two files-called
system.da0 and user.da0-each time the operating system is launched
successfully, but it's still wise to make your own backup on a regular
basis for extra security.

To back up the system.dat and user.dat files, simply copy them to a floppy disk. (If your system.dat file is too large to fit on one floppy, you can compress it using a program such as WinZip or PKZip, both of which are available as shareware from, for example, the software libraries on America Online or www.shareware.com on the Web.) Note that if you've created different profiles for multiple users of your PC, you'll have more than one user.dat file; one will be in the
C:\Windows folder, and the others will be in :\Windows\Profiles\Username
subfolders, where Username is the login for an individual user. Make sure to copy all user.dat files to subfolders on your backup floppy. If you ever need to restore your Registry, just copy the system.dat and user.dat backup files from your floppy disk to your C:\Windows folder, or rename the two .da0 backup files in your C:\Windows folder to have a .dat extension. In a worst-case scenario, if Registry problems prevent you from launching Windows 95 normally, you can perform this file restoration by starting Windows 95 in Safe Mode. At boot-up, when you see the line "Starting Windows 95," press F8 and select option 3, Safe Mode. Then copy your backup files to your C:\Windows folder as directed above.