How do you find registry entries?

[mike]

A large percentage of questions are, "How do I do/fix this?"
If you're extremely lucky, someone will pop up with the fix,
"Go find the registry entry with this bazillion digit number
and add this weird key and set the value to 1..."

Ok, it works. But this has gotta be the hard way.
The only way the OS could recoginze this new key is if it were
pre-programmed in at the start.

That implies that somewhere there's a list of all possible
registry keys and what they do. Searching that list oughta
go a long way toward fixing many issues.

Where can one find such a list?

No, it's not rational to expect to be able to search the M$KB.
It may be in there, but the chance of finding it is near zero
unless you already know what to call it. It's easy to find stuff
if you already know where it is.
Thanks, mike

 

[Dave Patrick]

You can find some good books on the windows registry but I know of no
one-source that will have everything.

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

 

[mike]

You can find some good books on the windows registry but I know of no
one-source that will have everything.

Problem with a book is that it's not searchable.
If you don't know the right topic or if that topic
isn't indexed, there's no way to find it in a book.

Anything comprehensive online?
Thanks, mike

 

[Dave Patrick]

A lot of them come with accompanying CD-Rom media. Yes, that's a problem
with most anything.... if you don't know what you're looking for it makes it
really difficult to find.

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

 

[NewScience]

Try www.winguides.com.

What you are trying is to find a book that lays everything out in the
registry. After 15 years in Windows ... I'll tell you ... there is no one
book.

You just can pick this up quick and fast. You have to read books after
books from top-to-bottom to see how the registry is put together and how it
all fits.

Once you get a handle on one area, there are many other areas you have to
learn next.
You have to understand about Drivers, INF files, Services, Networking,
System Information, User Accounts, .... they are all different in the keys
they use, how to modify them, and then what impact it has.

Once you get a handle on everything ... then you have to understand the
security aspect of the registry .... Permissions.

After all that ... then you find out that MS has changed the registry keys
and you start all over again with each new OS version.

 

[Mark V]

Problem with a book is that it's not searchable.
If you don't know the right topic or if that topic
isn't indexed, there's no way to find it in a book.

Anything comprehensive online?
Thanks, mike

Nothing I know of. But try some searches at Microsoft and be sure
to include MSDN articles. With the proper keywords it is sometimes
amazing what can be found mentioned in an obscure article. <G>

I'd also advise becoming familiar with the Tips & Tricks searchable
data at
http://www.jsiinc.com
http://www.jsifaq.com/reghack.htm
While not totally encompassing, there is a lot of good detail to be
found there.

"NewScience" has it. Time, study and experience required such that
a greater comprehension level can be achieved. This understanding
of structure and purpose and "how it works" eventually leads to an
understanding which goes a very long ways toward whatever
"mastery" might be possible. In the long run, specifics are hard
to come by in many cases such as system defaults _not_ included in
the registry for example, or vendor-specific data not ever publicly
documented. After a few thousand hours it will get easier. <G>

 

[mike]

might be interesting to see a fully populated registry
with all the defaults explicitly defined.
mike

 

[Dave Patrick]

There used to be on posted for Windows NT but I think it's gone now. These
should help.

http://technet2.microsoft.com/Windo...a7b2-4f21-ab5e-5c62d728619f1033.mspx?mfr=true
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/reskit/w2rkbook/regentry.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/archive/winntas/tips/winntmag/inreg.mspx?mfr=true

This book may also be of interest.
http://www.solsem.com/books.html

A few more.
http://labmice.techtarget.com/BookReviews/books_w2kregistry.htm


--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect