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MAINTAIN, BACK UP AND RESTORE YOUR REGISTRY: 

1.  Registry Editor.  Regedit.exe is the registry editor--you can open it by double-clicking the file or by going to Run on the Start Menu, typing:  regedit and clicking OK.   You navigate in the editor just as you do in Explorer.  Clicking on the plus sign (+) in front of a folder (they are called keys in the registry) will open up a new branch.  If you look on the toolbar of the registry editor, you will find the two main functions of export and find. If you are ever tempted to delete anything, always export the key or back up the registry before doing so.  If you do not know what you are doing, do not make changes or deletions except when you have explicit guidance.

2.  Exporting a Key.    Sometimes it is easier to export a registry key instead of doing a full registry backup or perhaps you just need to export a key in order to modify it.  Open the registry editor (start menu, run, type:  regedit and OK) and highlight the key that you want to export.   On the toolbar, click Registry and Export Registry File.  In the window that appears, name the .reg file and save it to a convenient location.  I use the desktop for ease of finding the file and so I remember to get rid of it after I am through with it.  You can then alter the key and should things not work properly, you can restore the original key by double-clicking the .reg file. 

3.  W98 Registry.  W98 backs up your registry automatically the first time you logon each day.  By default, five copies of the registry (user.dat and system.dat files) and system.ini and win.ini files are maintained in .cab files located in the Windows/Sysbckup folder.  To see the Scanreg options, go to a MS-DOS prompt and type:  Scanreg /? (note the space between the “g” and the slash).   To employ the Scanreg options, restart the PC in MS-DOS mode.  When the prompt appears, type:  Scanreg    followed by the appropriate \option.    Scanreg also automatically compacts the registry when 500 kb of slack space is detected.     Scanreg /opt can be used to manually compact it.  To alter the default options, use Notepad to look at and change the Scanreg.ini file in the Windows folder.  Full details on Scanreg are available in Knowledge Base  article Q183887 and instructions for altering the scanreg.ini file are covered in Q183603.  The W98 registry back up system works great so learn how to use it.

4.  If you are interested in tracking down settings and such in the registry, you will need a registry program such as RegView or RegMon.  With RegView, shareware available from www.regview.com/regview/, the user takes a snapshot of the registry.  The user can change settings or whatever, take another snapshot of the registry and then compare the two and display the changes.  The complete registry key, old values and new values are displayed.  RegMon, freeware available from:  www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/regmon.mspx, is a utility that watches and displays information on system-wide registry accesses as they are occurring.  I find RegView to be the much easier of the two to operate.