Needless to say, being the database housing all settings and configurations of the Windows operating system, Windows Registry is a vital component of the Windows OS. Simply put, it is the brain of your desktop/laptop.

It is crucial that you back up your machine’s registry to avoid unpleasant surprises.

Windows Registry Editor and System Restore, two useful components of the Windows OS, allow users to back up the registry. On the other hand, neither of these applications provides regular schedulable automatic backups.

There is always a solution for the ‘better be safe than sorry’ crowd that I belong to. The Emergency Recovery Utility for Windows NT (ERUNT) is a free software package available online. ERUNT can both arrange scheduled automatic back ups and restore your computer’s settings based on those backups.

Once installed and running, it starts with establishing a host folder for the backups. I go with the default folder which is C:WindowsERDNT. You will also be prompted to choose which registry clusters (system registry and current user registry) to backup. I choose back up both.

After these simple steps, ERUNT creates a copy of the Windows Registry whenever your system starts up.

You can find the automatic backups in C:WindowsERDNTAutoBackup. If disaster strikes as expected, all you need to do is to access C:WindowsERDNT, find ERDNT.exe and run it. You will see that the ERUNT utility will automatically restore the registry with ease.