To close the Group Policy editor, click File ➪ Exit. Note

Chapter 24 ✦ Working with the Registry for Windows If you’re searching for a specific value, such as a program name, username, address, or other value, you can use the Find command. To use the Find command, follow these steps:

1. In the Registry Editor, move to the top of the window so that you’re sure you search the

entire Registry.

2. Choose Edit ➪ Find. The Find dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 24-8.

Figure 24-8: Use the Find dialog box.

3. Type the word in the Find What text box, and then click the Find Next button. The

Searching the Registry dialog box appears. 4. When a match is found, the Registry opens to the key, subkey, and value matching the entry. Figure 24-9 shows the results of entering wingate in the Find What text box of the Find dialog box. Note the path to the key in the Status bar. Figure 24-9: Find the program’s values in the Registry.

5. To find the next occurrence of the key word in the Registry, press F3, or choose Edit ➪

Find Next. Part VI ✦ Managing the Network Working with values When you display values in the Registry, you see the values in the right pane of the window. The Name column displays the name of the value. The default value appears in every Registry entry. The actual value appears in the Data column. Names use any of the following characters: a through z, 0 through 9, space, and underscore _ . Values cannot exceed 64K because the Registry limits the size of these files. Also, the total size of each subkey is restricted to 64K. You should use all lowercase characters to locate values. Values can be text, binary, or DWORD data types: ✦ Text types refer to paths, usernames, program names, and so on. Text values are enclosed automatically within quotation marks. An empty text value appears as “”. You don’t have to enter the quotation marks when typing text data types. ✦ Binary data types consist of a sequence of hex bytes. Hex stands for hexadecimal, which is the base 16 numbering system. Hex numbering uses the digits 0 to 9, followed by the letters A to F, and is a convenient method of representing binary numbers. Binary represents the base 2 numbering system, using combinations of the digits 0 and 1 to represent all values. Binary numbers are easy for the computer to read. Hex is eas- ier for us to read. ✦ DWORD is a data type that is a unique binary value consisting of both hexadecimals and decimals. A sample is 0x11100010 0; the 0 contains the decimal representation, and the rest of the numbers represent the hex numbers. Basically, you can edit the DWORD data type by entering a value as either a hexadecimal or a decimal number and then indicating which it is. DWORD then enters both numbers, in code form, in the Registry. After you display a key, subkey, and the value you want to work with, you can edit the value. Editing a text, binary, or DWORD value is different. Following are the instructions for editing a text value. Before you change binary or DWORD values, make sure that you have specific information about the changes and that you understand what the results will be. Follow these steps to edit or modify a value in the Registry:

1. Double-click the value name, or select the value name and choose Edit ➪ Modify to

modify the value. The Edit String dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 24-10. Figure 24-10: Edit a value.

2. If the Value data text box already contains a value, that text is highlighted. You can

delete the text and enter your own value, or you can modify the existing data. Chapter 24 ✦ Working with the Registry for Windows If you enter text data values, do not enter the quotation marks; the Registry automatically enters the quotation marks. If you enter them too, you end up with two sets of quotation marks, which causes an error.

3. Click OK.

After you make any changes to the Registry, you should close the Registry Editor and then restart Windows. Using the Registry to Modify Network Settings Generally, you want to use the Network dialog box to modify settings for any computer. Those settings include protocols, bindings, services, clients, file and printer sharing, and adapter configurations. However, you might discover the need to change network data in the Registry. The following examples of modifying the Registry might not apply to your network; however, there are many instances when editing the Registry is the only solution to some problems. Microsoft’s online support site lists many networking and other types of problems. In the solutions to these problems, you often find directions to modify the Registry. You need to install the network protocols, adapter, client, and services before any entries appear in the Registry. For information about configuring the network in the Network dialog box, see Chapter 10. For information about solving network problems, see Appendix A. Cross- Reference Note Note Applying a Path in the Registry Just as an example, this sidebar explains how to edit an application path in the Registry.