REG File

What are REG files and how to open them

Are you having problems opening a REG file or are you simply curious about its contents? We're here to explain the properties of these files and provide you with software that can open or handle your REG files.

What is a REG file?

REG files have multiple uses, and Windows Registry Data is one of them. Read more about the other uses further down the page.

Windows Registry Data

These REG files contain data that is added to the Windows Registry when you run the .reg file. It is a file format developed by Microsoft.

Third-party application developers use some REG files for entering data into the Windows Registry upon the installation or activation of their software products in the Windows computer. Other .reg files may change the behavior of certain Windows features.

These .reg files can be opened and edited using standard text editors like Notepad. In addition, the Windows Registry Editor, which can be launched by typing Regedit in the Run dialogue box or the command line of Windows, can also be used to open and edit the content of these REG files.

The file format is text-based and has been encoded in Unicode since Windows NT 5.0. On the other hand, REG files for the Windows System Registry of Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 9X platform versions are encoded in ANSI.

How to open REG files

Important: Different programs may use files with the REG file extension for different purposes, so unless you are sure which format your REG file is, you may need to try a few different programs.

While we have not verified the app ourselves yet, our users have suggested a single REG opener which you will find listed below.

Last updated: January 29, 2022

All known file formats using extension .REG

While Windows Registry Data is a popular type of REG-file, we know of 2 different uses of the .REG file extension. Different software may use files with the same extension for different types of data.

Wine Registry

Wine is a Windows emulator for Linux. It lets you run Windows programs on the Linux operating system even though they were not designed for that operating system.

Wine uses a text-based registry (system.reg, user.reg, and userdef.reg) instead of the Registry Hive format used on the native Windows OS.

Various apps that use files with this extension

These apps are known to open certain types of REG files. Remember, different programs may use REG files for different purposes, so you may need to try out a few of them to be able to open your specific file.

Help us help others

File.org helps thousands of users every day, and we would love to hear from you if you have additional information about REG file formats, example files, or compatible programs. Please use the links below or email us at submit@file.org to discuss further.