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Seems like a simple question, but how do you edit the registry in Windows 7? regedit seems nowhere to be found. Or at least typing "reg" into the Search box on the start menu yields nothing, even when logged on as system admin. (This may be common with Vista, I don't know, since I skipped straight from XP to Win7).

Or are you forced to do it with command-line reg.exe?

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7 Answers 7

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22

Typing "reg" and not finding regedit is a symptom of Windows 7's search--it won't find an item based on 3 or fewer characters unless you have found it once already. After you type "regedit" and run, the next time you type "reg", it should find regedit.exe.

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16

Type regedit in the search box and hit Enter.

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2
  • It's the Jon Skeet effect. Clearly the person with the higher rep would provide the better answer. :P
    – EBGreen
    Sep 2, 2009 at 19:32
  • lol, no worries :)
    – th3dude
    Sep 2, 2009 at 19:36
10

Typing 

regedit

In the search bar and pressing enter brings it up fine for me.

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1
  • 2
    Hey, I was first :)
    – th3dude
    Sep 2, 2009 at 19:21
2

Typing "regedit" in the "Run" window works as well.

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-1

The old-school reg.exe command-line registry editor command is no longer available in Windows 7 (though you could try to copy it from an XP installation over and see if it runs).

You had better try to get used to regedit.exe - it's been the GUI-based standard since, oh last century? :)

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  • 5
    the reg cli tool is available in win7
    – Paxxi
    Sep 2, 2009 at 20:18
  • 4
    reg.exe clearly exists on Windows 7 Professional with the default Windows components installed. Does it not get installed by default on Windows 7 Home Premium or something? Why do people keep upvoting this?
    – bk1e
    Sep 3, 2009 at 17:27
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    Yes, REG.EXE is present in Windows-7. Maybe, caliban got confused because if you run reg from the Start menu, nothing seems to happen because it is a command-line app and has no UI, so it looks like nothing happenes. (Which is no excuse because if it did not give an application not found error, then it does exist. Besides, he clearly knows the difference between a command-line app and a GUI app, so one can only assume that his copy has been delete somehow.) Very curious. And no, regedit and reg are present in Home versions (at least that I’ve seen).
    – Synetech
    Jun 30, 2011 at 0:42
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Insert the installation CD and reboot the system, then go to Setup.

In Setup go to Repair, after that "System recovery options", and select "Command Prompt".

In Command Prompt type the following commands and press Enter after each one:

  1. C: (or whatever partition Windows is installed on)

  2. cd Windows

  3. Regedit

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-1

Click Start > Type regedit in search box and press Enter

then it will display registry window

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1
  • 1
    This has already been posted as an answer.
    – user201262
    Apr 21, 2014 at 13:29

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