Registry Editors Installed by Windows NT 4.0

This article discusses the versions of Registry Editor installed by Windows NT version 4.0 Setup.

Windows NT 4.0 Setup installs two versions of Registry Editor:

• The Windows NT Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).
• The version of Registry Editor included with Microsoft Windows version 3.1x (Regedit.exe).
  
  -or-
  
  The version of Registry Editor included with Microsoft Windows 95 (Regedit.exe).

The Windows NT version of Registry Editor is installed in the Winnt\ System32 folder. The Windows 3.1x version (16-bit) or Windows 95 version (32-bit) of Registry Editor is installed in the Winnt folder.

The version of Regedit.exe that Setup installs depends on whether or not Setup detects the presence of Windows version 3.1x in the folder in which it is installing Windows NT version 4.0. Setup installs the Windows 3.1x version of Registry Editor if either of the following conditions are true:

• You install Windows NT in a folder that contains Windows version 3.1x
• You upgrade an installation of Windows NT version 3.1x in a folder that originally contained Windows version 3.1x.

In all other cases, Setup installs the Windows 95 version of Registry Editor.

Windows 95 Version (Regedit.exe)

The Windows 95 version of Regedit.exe is included in Windows NT 4.0 primarily for its search capability. You can use this version of Regedit.exe to make changes in the registry, but not all functions or data types can be viewed or edited properly. The Windows 95 version of Regedit.exe does not provide the following functions or capabilities:

• You cannot set the security for registry keys. If you need this functionality, you must use Regedt32.exe.
• You cannot view or edit the value data types REG_EXPAND_SZ and REG_MULTI_SZ. If you attempt to view a REG_EXPAND_SZ value, Regedit.exe displays it as a binary data type. If you attempt to edit either of these data types, Regedit.exe saves it as REG_SZ and the data type no longer perform its intended function. To view or edit these data types, you must use Regedt32.exe.

Microsoft recommends that you use the Windows 95 version of Regedit.exe solely for its search capabilities and that you use Regedt32.exe when it is necessary to edit the registry. If you use regedit instead of regedt32 to edit the registry, you may corrupt your computer's registry causing the server to blue screen with a STOP 0xC000021A error.

For additional information about using Regedt32.exe and the Windows 3.1x version of Registry Editor (Regedit.exe), click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: For additional information about the registry editors included with Windows NT version 4.0, please see the Readme.wri file included with Windows NT 4.0