
First, open the Registry Editor by typing registry into the Start menu to find the utility. This is another case where you’re out of luck if you didn’t export anything from the registry before you wanted to reset it.įor the future, though, it’s good to know how to export registry entries and import them later to restore the backup. The Registry Editor makes it easy to export registry entries to keep them as a backup, share them with others, or similar.

Reset Some of the Registry From a File Backup Windows lets you make a restore point manually, but that doesn’t help if you’re already having a problem. Even for less drastic resets, you might not have a restore point from right before you made changes. It won’t let you entirely reset the registry, unless you created a restore point as soon as you started using your brand-new computer. You’ll also be able to choose between reinstalling Windows using recovery data from your system, or downloading a fresh copy over the internet. This will give you the option to only reinstall Windows while keeping your files, or nuke everything and start from scratch. To reset your Windows PC, open Settings from the Start menu or with Win + I, then go to Update & Security > Recovery and click Get Started under Reset this PC. The process of resetting Windows reinstalls the operating system, which will naturally reset the registry.


Because the registry contains so much data about your specific Windows configuration, you can’t reset the registry to a clean state without rendering your system inoperable.Īs a result, the only true way to reset the Windows Registry to default is to reset your Windows PC. Unfortunately, there’s no simple method to reset only the registry. Let’s look at the various methods for resetting the registry in Windows and how to prevent these issues in the future. If you’ve accidentally messed up the registry by making a manual mistake or some other error, you might wonder how to reset the registry to default.
