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Where is the Windows Registry Files stored?

I want to know where is registry stored in windows 7? I don't want to open it with regedit. I want the actual files and way to open them(because most of the time file formats are strange).

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You really really shouldn't be opening Registry hives with anything other than the registry editor, regedit.exe. Anything else is liable to break your entire system beyond any hope of repair. – nhinkle♦ Dec 23 '10 at 22:02
I don't understand why this was migrated from StackOverflow, since it seems not only the locations but the formats are desired, and the format is definitely a programming question. – Mark Ransom Dec 23 '10 at 22:10
Second part of the question is related to programming. I also can't understand why they migrated it here. – narayanpatra Dec 25 '10 at 18:46
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migrated from stackoverflow.com Dec 23 '10 at 21:43

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closed as exact duplicate by Mehper C. Palavuzlar, nhinkle♦, Sathya♦, Diago Dec 24 '10 at 15:17

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1 Answer

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They are called registry hive files. They are (mostly) located in the %SystemRoot%\System32\Config directory. Much more info available in the MSDN.

Note: I would not touch these files with an infinitely long pole.

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I predict a question sometime soon along the lines of, "Help... I've corrupted my registry and now Windows won't start!" :p – Andrew Barber Dec 23 '10 at 21:41
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HKCU is stored in %Userprofile%\NTUser.dat, though – Joey Dec 23 '10 at 21:46
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I second this motion "Note: I would not touch these files with an infinitely long pole." – brandon927 Dec 23 '10 at 21:54
No problem touching them, as long as it's read-only. – Mark Ransom Dec 23 '10 at 22:10
There's a separate file for HKCU\Software\Classes too. (No idea where on W7, though.) – grawity Dec 24 '10 at 13:07
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