Windows Registry Basics- Noob Friendly

Windows Registry
Registry basically constitutes underlying organization of  the entire operating system and its effective settings mostly leads to hacks. Registry is helpful in making changes to the operating systems. If you want to be a master in editing the registry and reproducing it according to your requirements then in this post i'll gonna tell some of the basics to start with. In other words, registry is the hierarchical database that stores windows' configuration settings.

Start Registry Editor => Move over to start screen then type regedit and press enter.

Registry Hives:-

1. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT:- This section contains information about file names, their extensions and type of file. It controls basic user interface options like context menus. 

2. HKEY_CURRENT_USER:- This particular area consists of information about the system setup settings of currently logged in user. This is also responsible for managing windows Network Connections or connection to external devices like printers. Security Identifiers(SIDs) also fall under this hive, which helps the computer to identify the users with their preferences which further can help to load the particular user's customized desktop or user account. Following snapshot provides you with the user interface of the registry editor and the ibid hive:-

Registry Editor

3. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE:- This hive is packed up with the information about the computer itself. All hardware details, storage details etc. are listed under this category. It also contains the information about the installed softwares, drivers and services and machine's information. Passwords related information can also be found under SAM category under the same roof. 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

4. HKEY_USERS:- This hive contains information about every existed user profile on the system.

5. HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG:- This field contains the information about currently installed hardware configuration on the system. 

6. HKEY_CURRENT_USER:- This field have the information about the current user of the system. 

Keys

Keys:- These are likely to be  folders situated immediately under the main hive called keys. These keys contain further subkeys in a hierarchical manner much like folder inside a folder. E.g. files on a hard disk. Following screenshot will clear the concept :-

Keys

Keys and Subkeys together contains some values which makes a particular setting. Hope you got some basic knowledge and understanding about windows registry. 
It is a very powerful tool to customize your user interface and all the working environment with registry.