Windows Tip: Edit User Registry of other users

When you make changes in the Windows Registry you normally can only make them for all users or the user account that is currently logged in. But what if you want to make them in another user account ? There is an easy way to do that by loading the Registry hive of the user into the Registry.

Here is how this is done: Start the Windows Registry with the shortcut Windows R, typing regedit and pressing enter. Now mark the HKEY_Users folder in the Registry and click on File > Load Hive afterwards. The default directory that opens is the directory of the current user. Navigate to the user directory of the user that you want to make changes for, all available ones are listed in Document and Settings.

Enter that folder and look for the file ntuser.dat. That file is hidden, if you can’t locate it change the folder settings so that you can see hidden files and folders in Windows. A double-click on the file loads the Registry hive as a subfolder of HKEY_Users with the name that you have selected after clicking on the ntusers.dat file.