Opening the Registry Editor with Elevated Privileges

You may need to open an Elevated Registry in Windows Vista to edit registry entries that are located in the system entries such as HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE or HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT. You do not need to open an elevated registry to edit your user registry (HKEY_CURRENT_USER). If you do edit the HKEY_CURRENT_USER when you are working with an elevated registry then you are not editing your user’s registry. You are actually editing the account that lets you have elevated privileges. Here are the instructions that I use to open the Windows Vista Registry with Elevated Privileges.

WARNING

Editing the Windows Vista registry can cause serious issues such as system instability when editing/deleting the wrong entries. Please use the Registry Editor with extreme caution.

CAUTION

Before making any changes to the Windows Vista Registry, please backup your Windows Vista Registry by creating a System Restore point using the direction from "Create a System Restore Point".

Opening an Elevated Registry

NOTE

To enlarge the images, simply click on the images you would like to view. With Internet Explorer 7, you can right-click on the image to select Open in New Tab.

1. Click on the Start Orb (commonly known as the Start button).
2. Type regedit in the Start Search field on the Start Menu. Refer to Step 1 on the Image below.
3. The Programs in the Start Menu in the left pane will populate. "regedit.exe" should appear. Right-click on regedit.exe to access the context menu. Refer to Step 2 on the Image below.
4. Select Run as administrator in the Context menu for "regedit.exe". Refer to Step 3 on the Image below.
    

   

5. A UAC Prompt should appear to allow access to the elevated Registry Editor. Click on Continue to allow the Elevated Registry Editor to open. Refer to the Image below.
    

   

6. The Registry Editor window will open with elevated privileges. Refer to Image below.
    

   

NOTE

To enlarge the images, simply click on the images you would like to view. With Internet Explorer 7, you can right-click on the image to select Open in New Tab.

Related Articles

• Opening the Registry Editor without Elevated Privileges
• Create a System Restore Point

Version 1.5
Edited: May 3, 2012