If you suspect that a Windows problem is related to the database that stores hardware and software configuration information, which Windows component should you investigate?

Registry.

Explanation:

When the user suspects that an Operating system issue relates to the database that stores configuration content about the hardware and software.

So, they use registry of the Operating system to investigate such problem because the Registry is a configurations database which Microsoft's Operating System uses. This offers a centralized way to store specific requirements for every Microsoft's Operating System user, instead of store them separately.