Registry DataBase : 5 variable types
Maximum size for an entry in the registry :
NT/2K : 1Mb -------------------------------- 95/98/ME : 64Kb
REG_SZ : String generally easily readable ending with a 0. Program names, paths, version numbers and 0/1 settings are REG_SZ entries. Can contain unicode characters, not only ASCII.
REG_DWORD : Double word, 2 16-bit words, which makes 32 bits. Can contain integers until 2 to the power of 32. Many driver and service related entries are REG_DWORD entries.
REG_BINARY : Raw binary data without ending character, like entries related to hardware. Many of those entries can be viewed with Windows NT's Winmsdp.exe diagnosis tool.
REG_MULTI_SZ : Gathers several unicode character strings. Multiple values separated by a null character (ASCII code 0). It is a string made of text data that the null character makes readable. BIOS version information is an example of REG_MULTI_SZ data.
REG_EXPAND_SZ : Data string of variable length containing values such as %SystemRoot%, which the system will replace with c:\winnt for example. Similar to REG_SZ entries.
See the .reg and .inf files section for more information. See also Paul Robichaux's Managing the Windows NT Registry for more information about the various types of registry entries.

 

© Franck Kiechel 2000-2001