I'm in 100% agreement with DeaconFrost.
Reread the advice and answers he has given.
Now a piece of practical advice from someone who has been in this field for more that 4 decades and at all levels and all sides of the game,
Get yourself a computer that you can play with. Play with that. A VM is only a partial way of approaching your objective. You have a long, long, long journey ahead of you and I wish you well and much enjoyment on the journey.
karl
If you've been through all levels and sides of the computer field then surely you've encountered the need to learn and understand the registry of the Windows OS, just as the OP is attempting to do. Much credit needs to be given to the OP for being proactive about learning and understanding it rather than taking it for granted as something that needn't be touched for anything short of a few niche reasons given.
Because I've been there, done that, then I know what is unnecessary, unneeded and totally frivolous.
Have a nice day FliGi7.
That's unfortunate that so much time in the industry has led you to believe that. While I can't understand how that's possible, I can say that you really have missed a great trove of information that can be leveraged in the system. I couldn't do what I do in the computer field without having an extensive knowledge of the registry. Ask any competent malware analyst, reverse engineer, forensics expert, ... the list goes on. Obviously you haven't had experience in any of these, but I've never actually met a fellow professional in the field who deemed learning the registry unnecessary, unneeded, and totally frivolous in all regards (especially in light of the specific examples already mentioned where it is directly involved). I guess there's always a first, though.
Regardless of the topic at hand, you really shouldn't write something off, and especially promote that opinion to others to be a fact, just because you haven't found it useful. Seems rather closed-minded and doesn't further the purpose of a forum. But, that's just my opinion, as you have yours about the registry. I just hope the OP isn't discouraged by your impractical bias.
karlsnooks,
Thanks for the well wishes and advice.
FlliGi7,
As the OP, I am not discouraged. Among the many things I hope to learn is how program or OS behavior is influenced by the registry. I am confident that new horizons in troubleshooting will be opened with that knowledge.
Last edited by drpepper; 29 May 2012 at 19:09. Reason: add a thought
That's pretty much the line of thinking I'm going on. I'll give you an example with hardware. When's the last time you had to sort out an IRQ conflict? Windows 2000? Maybe early on with Windows XP? It used to be important, but not anymore, thanks to OS improvements.
Now, with respect to the registry, there was a time when it was a good idea to understand it, because you'd be going there occasionally. Not so much anymore, especially not with Windows 7. My further proof is the permissions Windows 7 puts on system resources to keep you from easily messing with such things.
The OP would be much better suited learning other areas of the computer than an old technology that should have been removed from Windows OSes by now. With today's systems, there's little reason to ever consider entering the registry. I get what you are saying, FlliGi7, honestly. Five years ago or so, I would have agreed with you 100% or more.
If the OP really wants to learn something useful, that allows mods and customizations, configurations, etc....check out PowerShell.
The OP said that this was an experimental machine. As long as he doesn't do any of this on his main computer, then what he is doing is perfectly fine with me. Learning the registry is a good thing to do (something that I need to do more, but haven't). I do recommend that the OP set up a Windows 7 virtual machine or put Windows 7 on the test machine and look through the Windows 7 registry. I do agree with you that Windows 7 needs far less tweaking (and I don't really tweak it anymore since my pcs work fine), but there are plenty of tutorials on this website that require registry tweaking and if you know the registry well, then those will be easy for you.
I was thinking that as well...that the OP should stick to Windows 7. Between the rearm trick and the fact he can copy back a file to "restore" a VM, it would be a great environment to expect broken systems. WHenever I play around with Linux, I do it in a VM, so I can quickly undo whatever I did to mess up the system.
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