What are Registry Keys? Hives? Values?

When most people say hives, they normally mean the five (5) main keys,
but sometimes they talk about sub-keys. Keys are the ones that look like
small folders in regedit. Values for each of the keys can be binary, string,
dword, multi-string ,expandable string, and a few others. In general, you do
not need to know what these values mean when editing them , since you
have to use the type that value needs. You can not use a string when a
dword is called for. Strings and dwords are the most common. On windows
2K, regedit only supports string, dword and binary. You will have to use
regedt32 to edit multi and expandable strings.
The types of values in the registry are listed on by Microsoft as the
following: (Note: This is taken directly from Microsoft’s site)
REG_BINARY
REG_DWORD
REG_EXPAND_SZ
REG_MULTI_SZ
REG_SZ
REG_RESOURCE_LIST
REG_RESOURCE_REQUIREMENTS_LIST
REG_FULL_RESOURCE_DESCRIPTOR
REG_NONE
REG_LINK
REG_QWORD
REG_BINARY Raw binary data. Most hardware component information is
stored as binary data and is displayed in Registry Editor in hexadecimal
format.
REG_DWORD Data represented by a number that is 4 bytes long (a 32-bit
integer). Many parameters for device drivers and services are this type and
are displayed in Registry Editor in binary, hexadecimal, or decimal format.
Related values are DWORD_LITTLE_ENDIAN (least significant byte is at
the lowest address) and REG_DWORD_BIG_ENDIAN (least significant
byte is at the highest address).
REG_EXPAND_SZ A variable-length data string. This data type includes
variables that are resolved when a program or service uses the data.
REG_MULTI_SZ A multiple string. Values that contain lists or multiple
values in a form that people can read are generally this type. Entries are
separated by spaces, commas, or other marks.
REG_SZ A fixed-length text string.
REG_RESOURCE_LIST A series of nested arrays that is designed to store
a resource list that is used by a hardware device driver or one of the physical
devices it controls. This data is detected and written in the \ResourceMap
tree by the system and is displayed in Registry Editor in hexadecimal format
as a Binary Value.
REG_RESOURCE_REQUIREMENTS_LIST A series of nested arrays that
is designed to store a device driver’s list of possible hardware resources the
driver or one of the physical devices it controls can use. The system writes a
subset of this list in the \ResourceMap tree. This data is detected by the
system and is displayed in Registry Editor in hexadecimal format as a
Binary Value.
REG_FULL_RESOURCE_DESCRIPTOR A series of nested arrays that is
designed to store a resource list that is used by a physical hardware device.
This data is detected and written in the \HardwareDescription tree by the
system and is displayed in Registry Editor in hexadecimal format as a
Binary Value.
REG_NONE - Data with no particular type. This data is written to the
registry by the system or applications and is displayed in Registry Editor in
hexadecimal format as a Binary Value
REG_LINK A Unicode string naming a symbolic link.
REG_QWORD Data represented by a number that is a 64-bit integer. This
data is displayed in Registry Editor as a Binary Value and was first
introduced in Windows 2000.