Editing the registry

Hold on there "Old Timer", I mean Greg. If you don't know what you are doing you had better stop, unless you want you next job to be re-installing windows!
Just my two coppers,

The registry doesn't allow multiple keys to be nuked without deleting the parent key. It is this way by default to help avoid catastrophe.

However, one way to do it is to:
1. Right-click the parent key in the left column and select export.
2. Save it to your desktop.
3. Right-click the saved file and select Edit. You will see that the file is simple text and you can delete all of the sub-keys as you please.
4. Save the file and exit Edit.
5. Then double-click the file you just saved to enter it into the registry. Then check the registry to make sure it updated correctly.

As the other writer said, if you do this to the wrong key, it can hose Windows.

Look at what you are modifying before you modify it. That will help you determine these little, but extremely important, details.

Don't make a whole group of changes to the Registry at one time. Make only one change. Close the Registry. Observe the change. Often, for the change to take effect you have to refresh the desktop (click on an icon and press F5) or reboot the system. Just make sure the desired change took effect and that your system is working properly before making another change.

If everything is working fine, you might want to attempt another change. If you do, be sure to once again make a patch and, after editing the Registry, close it and take the necessary steps to be certain that all is working properly. After making several changes, you may want to back up the entire Registry again.

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