You often read or hear that you should always proceed with caution when working with the Windows registry. Although this is very true, you can help alleviate some of the jitters of modifying the registry if you understand a little more about it.

First of all, a little about the registry terminology, keys, and values are terms you should be able to differentiate between. In the most simplistic terms, values contain the specific data and values are organized into registry keys.

Creating a new registry key is a straightforward process. With the Registry Editor open (click Start, click Run, and type regedit) navigate to the location where you want to create the new key. From the Edit menu, point to New and click Key. Conversely, you can delete an existing key by selecting the appropriate key and clicking Delete from the Edit menu.

Creating a new value is also fairly simple. Again, navigate to the appropriate key. Click Edit, point to New, and select one of the different value types. Type in the name for the value and edit the data by double clicking the value. The type of data you include in the value will depend on the type of value you are creating. For example, a DWORD value will consist of a number.