My job involves working with lots of config data, conveniently stored in the system registry. Now, there are all kinds of ways to get at the registry. You can:
- use regedit and a .reg file. To silently import a registry file use the /s switch. To remove a key, prepend the registry key name with a ‘-‘. This is really great for large amounts of data and works well with batch files
- use VBScript or JavaScript and the Windows Scripting Host or WMI for full access to the registry (and the rest of your system
- use the REG command line interface. Check out this list of options:
C:\Documents and Settings\Matt>reg /?
Console Registry Tool for Windows - version 3.0
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corp. 1981-2001. All rights reserved
REG Operation [Parameter List]
Operation [ QUERY | ADD | DELETE | COPY |
SAVE | LOAD | UNLOAD | RESTORE |
COMPARE | EXPORT | IMPORT ]
Return Code: (Except of REG COMPARE)
0 - Successful
1 - Failed
For help on a specific operation type:
REG Operation /?
Examples:
REG QUERY /?
REG ADD /?
REG DELETE /?
REG COPY /?
REG SAVE /?
REG RESTORE /?
REG LOAD /?
REG UNLOAD /?
REG COMPARE /?
REG EXPORT /?
REG IMPORT /?
Before today I didn’t even know this tool existed for me. I’ve used the other two methods frequently for unattended installs on remote machines, but this new tool looks very promising. I learned about it from this post by Scott Hanselman (note the first comment)
— Matt Ranlett