Windows 98 Registry

The registry is composed of two hidden files: USER.DAT and SYSTEM.DAT

To see them you will need to view hidden files by right-clicking on Start --> Explore --> View --> Folder Options ... under the Hidden Files section make sure that Show ALL Files is checked --> OK.

Then (still using explorer) browse on over to c:\windows and find the SYSTEM.DAT file and USER.DAT file and copy them to a Zip Cartridge or another Hard disk drive or a cd-rom (they're usually too big to fit on regular floppies and I wouldn't recommend cutting and pasting these together for a backup either).

To restore :
Boot your computer to Safe mode (Hold down the Control key while windows boots) and insert your cd-rom, zip (or whatever you used to backup the two files previously) and then use Explorer to browse to c:\windows. Rename the current system.dat to system.old and copy the backed up version to c:\windows\system.dat . Then rename the current user.dat to user.old and copy the backed up version to c:\windows

You should be able to shut down and restart and be using the backed up versions. Anything you installed after the backup will need to be reinstalled.

The above will work--

but there's another option with win98 -- and that's with Registry Checker and scanreg /restore .. but you'll need to backup everything within c:\windows\sysbckup