Windows Registry Security

The security concept in windows registry dates back to Windows NT operating system that was essentially the Windows Server OS. There were no security features in early version of client OS from microsoft including Windows 9x and ME editions. Security features in Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Vista let an administrator control access to registry keys by setting user ACLs on registry keys. Windows NT and Windows 2000 OS included seperate tools for registry editing viz. REGEDIT.EXE and REGEDT32.EXE. REGEDT32.EXE was the tool used to registry permissions.