Microsoft Windows XP Registry Guide (Bpg-Other) [Paperback]

Jerry Honeycutt (Author)

Book Description

Series: Bpg-Other | Publication Date: October 11, 2002

This title for power users and IT professionals is the authoritative source for information on the Windows XP registry and how to modify it to suit your administrative and personal needs.

The Windows registry contains profiles for each user of a computer plus information about system hardware, installed programs, property settings, and more. Modifying the Windows registry gives users the utmost control over the PC, but it's been somewhat of a dangerous black art -- until now. This title is the complete reference to working with the Windows XP registry -- including everything from registry hacks for power users to management and deployment guidance for IT professionals. The book includes troubleshooting hints, common workarounds, and a guide to how to use the new registry editor. Written by a recognized expert -- the author of six books on the Windows registry -- this book is the authoritative resource for readers who want or need to work with the Windows registry. Highlights include chapters on pinpointing registry settings and scripting registry changes, dealing with registry permissions, using Windows Installer, and mapping Tweak UI settings to actual registry values.

Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press (October 11, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735617880
• ISBN-13: 978-0735617889
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #590,813 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

140 of 141 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jerry Honeycutt's XP Registry Guide Has it All, November 22, 2003

By 

James L Bowen Jr (Roanoke, Virginia United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Microsoft Windows XP Registry Guide (Bpg-Other) (Paperback)

Jerry Honeycutt's, Windows XP Registry Guide, is an invaluable resource for any XP user. Two "registry guides" I read for previous Windows operating systems were a total waste of money. This book, however, is worth buying at any price.

I was a die-hard Windows 2000 user and disliked XP for many reasons. The new user interface, new services-running by default, hidden application settings, and generally, decisions Microsoft made based on marketing data for users who wanted someone else to make decisions for them.

I never wanted anything to do with XP, but when I needed two new computers earlier this year, I had no choice. I bought Jerry's book because I hoped to learn some basics about where Microsoft had hidden certain settings; I didn't know it would make me a Windows XP lover.

Not only were the basics like data types and key locations discussed, but also complex registry manipulation and deployment through scripting, Answer files, and Windows Installer.

The Windows XP Registry Guide takes a systematic approach to learning and using registry tools to get the most out or your XP system. Novice users will learn enough to make the book worthwhile by reading just the first section (five chapters), but once you get that far you will want to read it all. Jerry is careful to warn about careless hacking and thoroughly covers backing up and restoring the registry using tools already included in Windows XP and several third party tools. I was surprised to learn how useful Microsoft's Word application is in managing changes made to the registry.

If you already use TweakUI to manage your XP system, a complete mapping of every change is included in Chapter 5.

Are you an IT professional? This book will show you how to work around IT problems in Chapter 15. Also for the professional is detailed information about disk "cloning" using Sysprep. Using Group Policy settings, and deploying User Profiles.

Registry based security and security templates information in Chapter 7 will show you how to manage and control access in computers from "Simple File Sharing" in your home network or the control needed in a computer available to the public.

Another chapter I found particularly useful is the Office XP registry-based user settings covered in Chapter 15.

This book has it all, and to help even further are links to very important whitepapers and documentation available at Microsoft's Web site and additional third party resources. Add to this the four appendices; (A) File Associations, (B) Per-User Settings, (C) Per-Computer Settings, and (D) Group Policies, and you have exposed the heart and soul of the Windows XP operating system.

Buy this book!

49 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Registry and More, September 30, 2003

By 

Jase T. Wolfe - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Microsoft Windows XP Registry Guide (Bpg-Other) (Paperback)

Anyone who administers XP should get this book. All one has to do is try to manage multiple computers and it quickly becomes obvious that the GUI is not the easiest way to go. This title does an excellent job of mapping standard system policies and Tweak UI settings to specific registry settings giving you the ability to manipulate outside of the standard interfaces.

Beyond the policy mappings, the book also covers topics associated with the registry, such as creating your own group policy templates, managing deployments of user profiles, managing the way systems such as Office XP and the Windows Installer work, and providing recommendations as to ways to manage these settings via scripting. That said, keep in mind that the purpose of the book is to provide information on the registry and configuration settings, not to be an introduction to management utilities such as Resource Kit components or the WSH.

The appendices are an extremely valuable resource, providing at-a-glance table reference of user and computer settings, group policy mappings and file associations. Very handy.

The book is not meant for casual users of XP, or those that do not administer XP desktops, but for Administrators and developers, this is a recommended title.

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the best reference book on the subject, October 30, 2004

By 

T. Wei "Cantabrigian" (planet earth) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Microsoft Windows XP Registry Guide (Bpg-Other) (Paperback)

I bought it when it was published and have been referring to it regularly. It is not for the computer novice but anyone new to Windows XP should learn a lot about how the registry is organised. If you are after extensive registry tweaks this book has limited scope but there are a lot of excellent guides on the internet. The same author wrote a Windows 2000 registry guide and anyone familiar with Windows 2000 would not find it so daunting.

The strengths of the book are: (1) presentation; (2) chapters on deployment; (3) backing up and (4) Group Policy mapping to registry keys (but containing some errors). Such information is hard to find elsewhere unless you set the policy and find out what changes (but there are hundreds of policies to verify).

The section on scripting is only introductory and does not tell you how to read or write REG_BINARY values in hexadecimals. There are four significant and quite unnecessary section repetitions: (1) autologon; (2) IE SearchURLs; (3) IE History Lists and (4) IE Toolbar background. Some sections like those on customising group policy templates and *.inf files are for IT professionals rather than home users but the advanced home users might benefit from reading about them.

It compliments rather than competes with another registry book by P. Hipson (from Sybex, but the Sybex falls behind by some margin in terms of usefulness.)