reading/displaying files in system32\config folder

There are a files in the system32/config folder called software ,sam, default and system that don't have file extensions. These files in here are part of the registry apparently.
now i know with certain tools you can read the SAM to retrieve passwords but that's not what I'm after. I was wondering if its possible to read the other files (such as the System or Software files)
if i have have a drive that is a secondary drive with a windows installation on it
just curious if its doable and if so which programs to use that will give a understandable display of whats in the files and if possible the regs keys that are in it
i understand i could probally just import the registry hive but i dont want to do that

Yes it is doable. You can use the Windows registry editor to load them as hives. Take a copy of them first if you do not want to make any changes and do the following and if you do so you can restore them if you screw them up :).

1. Boot the disk in a computer as a second hard drive (do not boot the operating system on the disk).
   
   
2. Open registry editor.
   
   
3. Click on HKEY_USERS key.
   
   
4. Go to the File menu and select "Load Hive".
   
   
5. Navigate to the location of the registry hive you wish to load.
   

The SAM file is not a registry Hive so you cannot load it. The others system, default, software, security and default and the registry files under the documents and settings:

\Documents And Settings\[username]\ntuser.dat

Can all be loaded. The .sav files are the registry files as created when the operating system was first installed.

I wouldn't recommend making changes unless you know what you are doing; especially to the security hive.