Before learning how to restore your Windows registry, you must know the reasons that may force you to restore the registry. Some of the common reasons are given below.

    * Repair registry damage due to a recent program install/uninstall.
    * Fix corrupt registry entries due to system or software crash.
    * Remove malicious registry entries added by malware.
    * Undo changes done during manual registry edit.
    * Restore registry after a failed registry scan and repair process.

How to Restore Your Windows XP Registry

The method you choose to restore your registry primarily depends on the way you backup your registry. So let’s have a look at some of the methods that enable you to make registry backups on your XP system and how you can restore the registry from these backups.

Registry Editor

You can make full or selective backups of your registry using the Registry Editor. You need to perform the following steps to back up the registry:

   1. Open the Start menu, select Run, type Regedit, and then select the OK button.
   2. In the Registry Editor window, select File and then select Export.
   3. Type the name of the backup file in the File name box.
   4. In the Export range section, select All to back up the entire registry and to backup a selected portion choose the Selected branch option and then type the branch you want to backup in the text box.
   5. Select the Save to save the backup as a .reg fil