Windows stores most of its vital settings and other information in the registry which is a type of database. Not only Microsoft but other third party software vendors store their software related data in the registry. If the registry becomes corrupted or damaged, then Windows may stop working or may behave unexpectedly. This is why you should keep a backup of Windows registry for one of those days when you see the blue screen. The freeware tool called Registry Backup can help you create the backups of your Windows registry and also allows you to restore the registry when needed.
You can download the Registry Backup tool from the Tweaking website. The download is available both as an installer and a portable application. The download in both cases is less than two megabytes. When you start the Registry Backup tool, it shows up a window – where you can select which portions of the Windows registry you want to backup. If you do not know which ones you should select, then select them all.
Then give the backup a name like Backup 11-June-2013 and click on the big Backup Now button. Adding the present data to the backup name is very good idea to identify the backups easily. Registry Backup tool would open up VSS (Volume Shadow Service) to copy the registry related files. If the VSS method fails, then it uses a fall back method using the Windows Registry API. In a short while it would inform you that all the selected registry files have been copied.
If you want to restore the registry from the backup, then run the Registry Backup tool and go to the Restore Registry section. You have to select the backup using the drop-down listbox at the top. You can select which sections of the registry from the backup you want to restore. Then click on the Restore Now button and it would quickly restore the registry files from the backup.
In the settings of Registry Backup tool, you can change the folder where the backups are stored (by default, it is C:\RegBackup). You can choose to automatically delete the older backups. There is an option to create a schedule for backing up Windows registry. Creating the schedule for backups is a nice idea as it would automatically backup your Windows registry without you having to worry about doing it manually.
Although the Windows saves the Windows registry using the System Restore feature, but the Registry Backup tool gives you more flexibility over which sections of the Registry you want to backup. If you use the portable edition, then it can also create backups of registry files from multiple computers in the same place. It can restore the registry in the Windows safe mode as well.
You can download the free Registry Backup tool from http://www.tweaking.com/.