The Windows registry is one of the most confusing places while searching a particular registry key. Even to find just one registry key you will have to enter up to 10 folders. Windows Registry is just like a maze of entries which takes a lot of time to navigate through, so we require a shortcut for searching the entries. We do not have to navigate or browse through the entire registry. A quick search can be done to find the registry key fast. A registry key just looks like a folder with a path name. There are 5 type of registry keys which are HKEY_CURRENT_USER, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, HKEY_USERS, and HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG. All the folders that are contained in these 5 registries keys are the subkeys.

Steps to search a particular Windows Registry key.

1) Press the Win Key together with the letter R on your keyboard to start the run box.

2) In the run box type regedit and press the enter key.

3) When the registry has been opened just click on the word computer to turn its colour to blue.

4) Now press CTRL button and F on the keyboard.

5) A find box will be opened. You can type in the entry that you want to search.

If you are searching for a long string as in the case of the example given here, it may not work. The string is too long for windows to understand. Instead you can search for the last subkey which is iconstreams and you will be taken directly to it. The search will not provide any results if the searched subkey does not exist. You can save a lot of time by searching the registry through the search box instead of manually navigating to the subkey. For the subkey searched above if you are going for the manual navigation then you would require to open nine folders to find the entry. The process explained above reduces it to a single step.