Windows 7: Restore the registry editor to its default state?

How to restore the registry editor to its default state?.....................,

There is no such thing as a standard default state for the registry. The contents of the registry depend on the OS type, OS settings, hardware settings, applications installed and uninstalled etc. So the registry cannot be common across different windows installs.

If you think your registry is corrupted, you can do a system restore to go back to a previous point of time. Or if you think your registry may get corrupted in the future and want to take preventive steps, then apart from setting restore points, you can also backup the registry and restore from that backup at a later point. Theres a nice tutorial.

Registry - Backup and Restore

If you are having computer problems you can restore your computer to a pervious restore point. That will take the registry back as well.

What do you mean by default? Do you mean for the editor to always open in the same manner each time without remembering the last key that was open (as is the default)?

If you mean that you want the editor to open in its original state, just as though you had opened it for the first time, then this can be achieved by editing Permissions.

Open the Registry Editor and browse to the following key.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrenVersion\Applets\Regedit

In the left-hand panel, right click on Regedit and click Permissions...

In the dialogue panel that appears, click on the user that you require. There will be a box that has the title Permissions for <UserName> with a list of options together with Allow and Deny checkboxes. Click on the top two Deny checkboxes (Full Control and Read) to put a tick in them as shown in the image below.



Click OK and then close the Registry Editor. When you next re-open it, it will no longer remember the last key that you had opened and will open as shown below.

Great catch...you are right, does the OP mean the Registry Editor or the Registry. I have used your Registry Editor deny patch as well as just deleting the key. Deleting the key will not prevent the Registry Remembering were you were the next time but it is great for leaving it at default for imaging or cloning systems.