Transfer Favorite Registry Keys

How to Save or Transfer Your Favorite Registry Keys to Another PC

If you use the Windows Registry much, you’ve probably bookmarked some favorite locations. Registry Editor stores those favorites in—you guessed it—the Registry, so it’s easy to back them up or transfer them to another PC.

Standard warning: Registry Editor is a powerful tool and misusing it can render your system unstable or even inoperable. This is a pretty simple hack and as long as you stick to the instructions, you shouldn’t have any problems. That said, if you’ve never worked with it before, consider reading about how to use the Registry Editor before you get started. And definitely back up the Registry (and your computer!) before making changes.

In Registry Editor, drill down to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Regedit\Favorites

Each of your favorites is stored in string values inside the Favorites key. To back them up, all you have to do is export that key. Right-click the Favorites key and choose “Export.”



Save the REG file to whatever location you want. To restore those favorites, just double-click the REG file on the PC where you want those favorites, and follow the prompts to import it to the Registry on that PC.



When you import the file, the favorites will be added to the list of favorites in Registry Editor on that PC. Just note that it will overwrite a current favorite location if the imported favorite has the exact same name as a current favorite.