Restore registry from .reg backup files

On this page of Registry First Aid you can see the list of available backup files and its contents.

See a screenshot

The list shows all .reg backup files created in the last used backup folder. You can view list of .reg backup files in any other folder pointing there with the Browse button. The list can be sorted by file name, creation time or last restoration time.

To view or edit any of the backup files from the list select a file and click the View button.

To restore any of the backup files from the list click the file and select all entries. Or if you know that your problem deals, for example, with Picture It!™ program, then you can select only those entries that have this name in its registry key, value or data. The Search button will be very helpful in finding entries by keywords.

You may also select several backup files or specified backup entries to restore from several backup files by holding down Ctrl key while clicking by mouse or keyboard space bar on a backup file in the list. The same way of selection is used to select files in Windows® Explorer.

Clicking the Delete button will delete all selected .reg backup files. This may help you to free the space by deleting very old backup files.

Note: Although you can select more than one backup file to restore, it is recommended to restore only one backup at a time and check if a problem persists.

If you can't run Registry First Aid to restore backups, then the following information will help you.

By default, the backup files have the following name format "yyyy_mm_dd_mmss.reg". Here yyyy is year, mm is month, dd is day and mmss are minutes and seconds of the date when the file was created. Backup files are saved by default in the folder "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\RFA_Backups\". User can browse this folder with explorer or quick open it from the Start menu -> Programs -> Registry First Aid -> Open Backup Folder.

To manually restore registry entries from a .reg backup file open backup folder, find a backup file that you want to restore and double-click on it. It will run regedit.exe - the default Windows® program - that will ask you do you really want to add this information into the registry. If you answer "Yes" then registry entries from this backup file will be restored.

For the information on how to figure out problem registry entries that should not be modified please refer to the FAQ topic: "After running Registry First Aid, a program does not function correctly. What do I do?"