CODEWITHSUNDEEP
windowswindows-vistawindows-xp
Rajesh
Rajesh

Reputation: 6579

What does HKLM in MS windows stand for?

What does HKLM in MS windows stand for??

Upvotes: 2

Views: 3873

Answers (6)

elmanitas
elmanitas

Reputation: 1

The link below does not state that the 'H' in 'HKEY' stands for 'hive'. It only states that the logical group of keys is called a hive.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/pt-br/library/windows/desktop/ms724877(v=vs.85).aspx

The H stands for 'handle' following a naming convention for the Windows data type HANDLE. See https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/winprog/windows-data-types. There are many other resources in the vendor docs that helps us understand that it means 'handle to registry key', but this link might be the clearest. You can also refer to the common list of prefixes in the following link, which includes prepending h to handles. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/stg/coding-style-conventions

Upvotes: 0

Premraj
Premraj

Reputation: 74551

Microsoft Windows operating systems under Windows NT family use a multipart database commonly known as the Registry; to hold system and user configuration information. The contents of this database are stored in five files referred to as Hives.

  • Subtree – These are the root primary (root) divisions.
  • Key - Keys are the next division down from subtree, which contain at least one subkey. Some subtrees do not have keys.
  • Subkey - Subkeys are the next level down from keys or subtrees i.e. if the subtree has no keys. These store entries and other subkeys.
  • Entry – These appear on the right pane of the Registry editor window and happen to be the lowest-level element in the Registry. Normally an entry has 3 properties i.e. Name, Value and Data type. Data types serve the function of defining the length and format of the actual Operating System and programs configuration data that an entry can hold in the value field. Entries differ from subtrees, keys, and subkeys, as they are merely containers. To reference an entry you need its Registry path and name
  • Hive Files – These are a set of files where permanent parts of the Registry are stored. They store data for four keys i.e. SAM, SECURITY, SOFTWARE and DEFAULT; and are saved in %System32%\Config, normally updated with user each login.
  • Note: subtrees, keys, subkeys appear as folders on the left pane. Entries appear on the right pane

enter image description here

Source

Prior to the Windows Registry, .INI files stored each program's settings as a text file, The basic element contained in an INI file is the key or property. Every key has a name and a value, delimited by an equals sign (=) as follows:

Source

name=value

Upvotes: 1

mukade
mukade

Reputation: 660

As already said above, the 'H' in 'HKEY' really stands for 'hive'.

Just adding the link to the official documentation: https://msdn.microsoft.com/pt-br/library/windows/desktop/ms724877(v=vs.85).aspx

Upvotes: 2

Daniel Pratt
Daniel Pratt

Reputation: 12077

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE The registry hive that contains all machine-wide registry settings.

Upvotes: 3

sargas
sargas

Reputation: 1144

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

HKEY prefix is common to all the registry hives, and the local machine hive is meant for settings that affect every user.

Upvotes: 7

Pekka
Pekka

Reputation: 449385

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, a part of the windows registry structure.

Check out the Wikipedia Article on the Windows Registry.

Upvotes: 1

Related Questions