The Windows 98 registry is a part of Microsoft's Windows 98 operating system that is used
to save data about the system configuration.
Microsoft originally used "ini" files to this kind of data, but began using
the registry with Windows 95 (and the older Windows for Workgroups).
The "ini" files were frequently overwritten as different applications began
to reset startup information. Unfortunately the registry is susceptable to the
same kinds of attacks.
The programming techniques to update the registry are easily obtainable online.
Hierarchical views of your registry are possible with RegEdit, a program
that Microsoft supplies with Windows. The views of the registry are a lot like
the way File Explorer displays the information from your hard disk.
A different way to look at registry data is to use MSConfig.exe, which is
the System Configuration program. It shows data in a window with tabs
to see different types of data. You can also set or reset which services
or programs you want to begin when you start up your PC.
Windows itself and the programs you run add, remove, and change data in the registry.
They use the registry to keep of various things such as recent files edited,
screen resizing, screen position, etc. Adding all these things to the registry,
of course, tends to make it grow. And many times programs forget to remove information
which causes it to bloat over time. The Windows 98 registry also tends to slow
down the system if it gets too large. So there are real performance gains that
can be made by downloading registry cleaners and running them on Windows 98.
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