How to Edit an Inactive Registry

An inactive registry is a saved file on your hard drive. It may be a backup copy, or you may have a corrupted registry you copied from another computer. The computer's Windows registry editor lets you load an inactive registry to the console so you can edit, delete or add values to the inactive registry file. This is beneficial when you want to edit your backup or attempt to fix a corrupted registry file.

• 1

  Click the Windows "Start" button. Type "regedit32" into the text box and press "Enter." This will open your Windows registry editor.

• 2

  Click the "Registry" menu option and select "Load Hive." Click the "Browse" button and point to your inactive registry file. Notice on the left side of your window, a second set of registry hives and keys are shown.

• 3

  Double-click one of the hives to edit it. This will expand a list of options and keys. Right-click one of the keys and select "Modify." A dialog box will open. This is where you modify the registry values. Click "OK" to save your changes. Continue using this step to edit other registry values.

• 4

  Click "Registry" in the main menu again and click "Unload Hive." This will close the edited, inactive registry file.