People ask me every day where I find my Registry tips; I make them up.
But when that doesn't work, I need to get into the Registry to see the changes that might have happened so I can make these same changes on another system. For example, if you have an application that changes how your system works, and you would like to implement that change on another system, without installing the software, you have to get very creative. You need to know what the changes were, so you can duplicate them. It takes quite a bit of patience, a lot of investigative testing, and some luck. (That's why you have to back it up first!) Plus, you need a tool to let you see what changed and when. DumpReg is the best tool there is for that.
DumpReg is a utility to show the contents of the Registry in a list format, which can be sorted in several ways. It works for both Windows NT (any version) and Windows 95. Options include finding all the Registry keys or values matching a specific string and filtering so only the matching items are shown. It also allows you to copy the information to the clipboard, or to print the report. Printing is not available until the software is registered, for only $10. Register the software. It is a steal for what you get.
Installation is as simple as copying the files into any
directory. As soon as
you launch DUMPREG.EXE the first time, it will put an entry into the Registry
in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\
SOFTWARE\Somarsoft\DumpReg, but it will make no other changes to the system.
Windows 95 does not support the time of the last modification, so the Show Time and Sort By Time options are disabled on Windows 95. Other than that, the program works exactly the same for Windows 95 and Windows NT. This chapter shows DumpReg on Windows NT, so you can see all of the options.
To start using DumpReg, launch the application, and go to Report | Dump Registry. It will prompt you for the Registry Hive you would like to list, as shown in Figure 40.1.
Figure 40.1. Choose the Handle Key to view.
The options allow you to filter the entries based on the amount of data to be shown,
and also to filter by date. Figure 40.2 shows you the options.
Figure 40.2. Optional filtering for the report.
When you press OK to confirm the filtering and again to launch the report, DumpReg
will pull all of the Registry information in the selected key
and list it by time,
with the most recent changes first. Figure 40.3 shows a sample report from my Primary
Domain Controller (PDC).
Figure 40.3. HKEY_CURRENT_USER from the PDC.
DumpReg is an extremely powerful way to determine what changes have been made to
your system. Simply filter the output by date, and you can see what last
happened
to your system. For example, many people are concerned about what will happen to
the Registry when they install Microsoft Office 97. If you have DumpReg on your system,
you could make the installation, and then look at each of the Handle Keys
to see
the changes. Set the time limits for only that day and the report will be quite short.
NOTE: You may be amazed at the number of changes made to the Registry every day. It is a very dynamic, ever-changing database of entries.
Though the time-sorted format is the most beneficial for determining what changes took place, you may want to see only the current status of different keys. You can quickly sort the report by key instead of by time.
You can also save the report, for later review or comparisons in a word processor. Finding the difference can be a little difficult, but using a compare document function could save you a lot of time.
You can also use DumpReg to examine the Registry of a remote computer, by selecting Report | Select Computer, and typing in the name in a UNC format (that is, \\server1). There is no browse option, so you will have to know the name of the system. Imagine if something happened to a computer on your network and you found out right away; you could check to see if it was a Registry problem by looking at that system's Registry, sorting it by time, and looking for the changes.
Printing is disabled on the shareware version until it is registered. Once it is enabled, you can choose many options for printing. One of the best options is to change the format for printing, setting it to landscape. Then, you can expand the size of the entries to get more data in the report. If you don't expand the size, some of the text will be truncated.
You also have an option to search inside the report for a specific string of text, so you won't have to wade through the whole report. That string can be in a key, value, or in the data in the value. The report is now just text, so it will look everywhere.
Another option is to filter the report contents. Instead of showing the complete Registry and searching through one string at a time, you can tell the report to show only the items that contain a specific string. Figure 40.4 shows the Filter option ready for a text string.
Figure 40.4. Filtering to reduce the size of the report.
DumpReg is a great tool, and every administrator or technical support person should have it. It is fast, easy, and extremely helpful. The Registry is a dynamic, ever-changing database of information. Because it changes so much, you and I need all the information we can get. DumpReg helps us wade through the masses of data and pull out exactly what will help us the most.
As you work through your challenges with the Registry, use all the functions and tools shown in this book. Understanding the Registry is very much like gaining wisdom. No matter how much you have, there is always more, and part of the wisdom you have is knowing that there will always be more.
Good luck in your quest. I hope this book will be of great help. Let me know how you do.
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