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As you can see when you start the Registry Editor, Registry has six main branches, or "root key" Every branch that used has different class of information.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE is the branch that contains information specifically relating to the computer. The example includes hardware and software installed, driver for hardware and configuration data for software. The content of this branch is stored in SYSTEM.DAT file in the Windows Registry 9x.  

Other thing stored in SYSTEM.DAT is information about software components installed on the computer. Windows supports object-based architecture that enables software components to be used by any application. This technology has evolved since it was introduced in Windows 3 and has been known as Object Linking and Embedding (OLE), and ActiveX Component Object Model (COM). Components are installed on computer that listed in the list so that other programs know that they exist and are able to use it. An example of this is Internet Explorer, the browser that its components can be used by any program which needs to display a web page or other HTML-formatted data.   

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT contains file type information relating to the measures that can be done such as (Open, Print, etc.) and information about installing the software components. In fact, it is a mirror of the corresponding sub-branch of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE which can be accessed by itself as the root key for compatibility reason. Microsoft first introduced the Registry on 16-bit on Windows 3, but only contains this information. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT allows program code written for Windows 3 to work without modification, but also provides a convenient way for today's software to access frequently used class of Registry data.

Other HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG is a mirror of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE sub-branch. In this case, it contains the configuration of computer hardware. Windows supports hardware profiles that allow you to enable or disable the drivers for different hardware in accordance with the attached hardware. (For example is a notebook PC that can use a specific device when connected to a docking station) All profiles are stored in a separate branch in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG provide a direct route to one of them when boot.

HKEY_USERS root key is for information related to computer users, not to the machine. It holds the user preferences such as display settings, desktop display, sound system, a list of recently opened files and so on. Application of user-settable options is also available here. The contents are stored in a file named HKEY_USERS USER.DAT (or NTUSER.DAT under Windows NT/2000).

HKEY_USERS contains the user configuration data that associated with a standard user and the user name (if the user profile has been enabled in Windows 9x). However, the application always set a user to access the root key HKEY_CURRENT_USER, as the name suggests, it gives access to the settings for the current user. The root key is created when the user logs in. The changes made to this data are written to a USER.DAT file and stored in user’s subfolder from Windows Profiles folder.

HKEY_DYN_DATA is the key that provides access to the performance and status information about system components. This data is not stored anywhere: it is constantly changing data that is held at the locations in the Ram and updated by the driver software or the Windows kernel. Registry only provides a convenient interface for programs that want to access it. Software utility that displays information about CPU usage, memory usage, and network data transfer rates and so on just reading this information from HKEY_DYN_DATA and displays them in an attractive graphical form. However, it is very difficult to interpret the data by examining the use of Registry Editor.

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