Windows – What are the differences between the multiple ControlSets in the Windows registry

windowswindows-registry

There are multiple branches with “ControlSet” in their names under HKEY_LOCALMACHINE\SYSTEM.

What are the fundamental differences between the way Windows uses these 3 keys?

HKLM\System\ControlSet001
HKLM\System\ControlSet002
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet

Best Answer

Microsoft say it best in KB100010

Going back to Windows (I think 95), you could set any driver/hardware component to work only in a certain setting mode, which was user selectable at start up.

By default, you have

\ControlSet001 - Last boot

\ControlSet002 - Known good settings

\CurrentControlSet - Current boot

Edit --

It looks like this was only taken out recently, I have personally never used it since 95, however, I found a good site that can show you it from Windows XP.

From system properties:

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And from device manager:

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