Backing Up the Registry Key (Windows Users)

If you are on Windows and you want to back up all of your site definitions in one single step, export the registry key that contains all of your site definitions and settings.

To export the registry key for your site definitions, follow these steps:

Caution: Do not to change, add, or delete anything in the Windows registry!

1. Select > Start > Execute.
2. Type regedit into the dialog box and click Execute to open the Registry editor.

3. In the left-side window navigate to:

   • Dreamweaver 4 users:

     HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Macromedia\Dreamweaver 4\Sites 
     

   • Dreamweaver MX users:

     HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Macromedia\Dreamweaver 6\Sites 
     

   • Dreamweaver MX 2004 users:

     HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Macromedia\Common\2004\Sites 
     

   • Dreamweaver 8 users:

     HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Macromedia\Common\8\Sites 
     

4. Highlight the Sites key (see Figure 6).

   

   Figure 6. Highlight the Sites key

5. Select File > Export in the menu bar.
6. Select Selected branch in the Export Range section of the Export Registry File dialog box.

7. Choose a name you can easily remember.

   Tip: I always add the month and year to a file's name. For example, sitesDW8_11_05.reg for the sites definition key in Dreamweaver 8, saved in November 2005. This way, I always know when I backed up of the Sites registry key.

8. Click Save to save your site definitions as a Registration File (*.reg).

To import and restore the Sites key in the registry, follow these steps:

1. Open the Registry editor.
2. Select > File > Import.

3. Go to the folder where you stored your REG file and click Import. The registry editor automatically imports the key to the correct place in the registry.

   Alternatively, double-click the REG file. It will be automatically imported to the correct place in the registry.

Note: The imported registry key overwrites the existing key. If you have added new site definitions since you backed up the registry key, you will lose the new definitions. Also, if you removed some site definitions, those definitions will be written to the registry again. To avoid any problems, always back up new site definitions using the export/import feature. To remove site names of sites that you have already deleted from the list, go to the Manage Sites window. Never change anything within the Sites key in the Registry!

Also, do not import old registry keys after installing a newer version of Dreamweaver. The newer version will automatically import the old site definitions.

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