HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, often abbreviated asHKLM, is one of severalregistry hivesthat make up theWindows Registry.
In addition to software configuration data, this hive also contains lots of valuable information about currently detectedhardwareanddevice drivers.
For example, newer versions of Windows don’t include the COMPONENTS key.
The HARDWARE subkey holds data pertaining to theBIOS, processors, and other hardware devices.
The SOFTWARE subkey is the one most commonly accessed from the HKLM hive.
It’s also useful whenfinding a user’s SID.
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\ is found on 64-bit versions of Windows, but is used by32-bitapplications.
WoW64 shows this key to 32-bit applications as “HKLM\SOFTWARE.”
The SAM subkey refers to information about Security Accounts Manager (SAM) databases for domains.
The SECURITY subkey is used to store the security policy of the current user.
Because of this non-existent nature, neither you nor any program you install cancreate additional keysunder HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
Although it’s often written this way, HKLM isn’t really an “official” abbreviation.
