Working in the Registry Editor Windows

You can use the mouse or commands to manipulate the windows and panes in the Registry Editor in the same way as in File Manager. For example:

Double-click a key name to expand or collapse that entry. Or, choose commands from the View and Tree menus to control the display of a selected key and its data.
Use the mouse or arrow keys to move the vertical split bar in each window to control the size of the left and right panes.
Choose the Tile or Cascade command from the View menu to arrange the Registry Editor windows. Click the Minimize button, or double-click the particular window icon for the Registry to reduce or restore a window.
Choose Auto Refresh from the Options menu to update the display continuously. You can also choose one of the Refresh commands from the View menu to update the display of Registry information when Auto Refresh is turned off.

Tip Turning off Auto Refresh improves the performance of Registry Editor.

The following table shows some keyboard methods for managing the display of data in each of the Registry Editor windows.

Table 11.1 Keyboard Actions for Viewing Registry Data

Procedure	Keyboard action
Expand one level of a selected Registry key	Press ENTER.
Expand all of the levels of the predefined handle in the active Registry window	Press CTRL + *.
Expand a branch of a selected Registry key	Press the asterisk (*) key on the numeric keypad.
Collapse a branch of a selected Registry key	Press ENTER or the minus (-) sign on the numeric keypad.