How to Back Up the Registry in Windows 98 and Windows Millennium Edition

This article describes how to manually back up the Windows registry using Windows Registry Checker (Scanregw.exe).

There may be situations where you need to edit the Windows registry. Before you edit the registry, you should make a backup copy of the registry using the following steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type scanregw, and then click OK.
2. When you receive a prompt to back up the registry, click Yes.
3. When you receive the "Backup complete" message, click OK.
   

NOTE: When you back up the registry, the Rb0x.cab file is created in the Windows\Sysbckup folder (where x is a number from 0 to 5). Each time you back up the registry, the oldest Rb0x.cab file is overwritten. Windows Registry Checker backs up the System.dat, User.dat, System.ini, and Win.ini files, as well as registry configuration information (including user account information, protocol bindings, software program settings, and user preferences).

For additional information about Windows Registry Checker and the registry, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: