Regedit last key

[Wonderer]

I have searched almost 40,000 headers for anything on this and found
nothing. What I want to know is what change to make in the registry, to stop
it from remembering the last key opened, thus resulting in the hive being
completely collapsed each time I open it.

--

Steven Shelton

There are two secrets to success in life
1) Never tell anybody everything you know

 

[lvee]

I know this is not the answer you are looking for, but I just click on My
Computer so that none of it's collapsed, then I close it.

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Bypasses Regedit's "memory" of the last key visited
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/scripts_desc/regopen.htm

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

Get Windows XP Service Pack 2 with Advanced Security Technologies:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxp/choose.mspx

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| I have searched almost 40,000 headers for anything on this and found
| nothing. What I want to know is what change to make in the registry, to stop
| it from remembering the last key opened, thus resulting in the hive being
| completely collapsed each time I open it.
|
| --
|
| Steven Shelton

 

[Jon]

Regedit itself stores the information in the registry when it closes
normally at

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Regedit\LastKey

and retrieves it when it starts.

So the only alternative to the scripting solution, suggested previously,
would be to terminate regedit in some abnormal way, eg through task manager,
or some other method.

Jon

 

[Jon]

Actually you might be able to play around with the permissions on that
particular registry key eg removing administrator access, (right-click the
key in regedit) but I haven't tried that one to know whether it would work
ok. So a system restore point would be advisable before attempting
something like that.

Jon

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Why screw around?

I use Doug Knox's regopen.vbs to open the Registry Editor unless I want to
open it where I left off. In that case I use regedit.exe.

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/scripts_desc/regopen.htm


--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Jon]

It's not screwing around. Once done, it would be done permanently and would
allow you to use regedit in the normal way. In fact a similar solution seems
to be suggested here

http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/1200/

Jon

 

[George Hester]

Why don't you just select the top of the registry then close it? I use what
you want to stop so that I can get back easily to the location when I need
to.

 

[Wonderer]

I do not go messing around in the registry all that much. When I do, I want
to do a search starting from the top and if it opens to some key near the
bottom, that is where it starts its search. I prefer the convenience of
starting out fresh everytime, just like it used to be in older versions. I
seem to recall that there is a key, somewhere, that you can give a 0 value
and it will cause regedit to always open collapsed. That is what I want.

--

Steven Shelton

There are two secrets to success in life
1) Never tell anybody everything you know

 

[George Hester]

That's true. And there is a setting for it shouldn't be too hard to find.
I don't have it because although I thought of doing that at one time I
realized how I could use the behavior in my favor. Often what happens is
I'll make a change in the registry then move on to other things. For days
even. Then something comes up and I realize I have to go back to that
location. I have clean forgot where it was. This issue saves my butt.

 

[Wonderer]

Well, if you happen to recall where to make that change, I would sure like
to know.

--

Steven Shelton

There are two secrets to success in life
1) Never tell anybody everything you know

 

[Li'l Roberto]

I have searched almost 40,000 headers for anything on this and found
nothing. What I want to know is what change to make in the registry, to
stop it from remembering the last key opened, thus resulting in the hive
being completely collapsed each time I open it.

--

Steven Shelton

There are two secrets to success in life
1) Never tell anybody everything you know

Here's the work around I use to expand/ collapse the, registry tree
hold down the shift key and tap the left arrow key to collapse the
tree, right arrow key to expand it .

rgds
Li'l Roberto

 

[George Hester]

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;266765

You should be able to keep it forever at My Computer. One way is to remove
the permissions on the key. That may cause an error when closing regedit
maybe not. Another way is to make sure you close regedit at the My
Computer. Then go back to this location in the registry (explained in the
article) and Export the key to a reg file. Then whenever you want to open
regedit run the reg file first. I suppose to you could write a script that
does this with the Windows Scripting Host. Note even though the article
mentions Windows ME that is irelevant to what we are trying to accomplish.
Basically it's the same thing.

I will try removing the permissions and see what happens...yes that works.
To renable the permissions you just allow the Parent to propagate which you
had to undo to change the permissions. Done in regedt32.

 

[Wonderer]

When I opened regedit and navigated to that specific key, it had "my
computer as its value. I have tried editing that before and it just changed
it to whatever the last key I used was. If you changed it in xp and it is
now working permanently, what value did you put there?

--

Steven Shelton

There are two secrets to success in life
1) Never tell anybody everything you know

 

[Wonderer]

I have now tried renaming regedit and even deleting it, but it is recreated
and regedit opens right to that spot. Something else controls it. That key
shows what it was last opened to, but there is a higher control somewhere.

--

Steven Shelton

There are two secrets to success in life
1) Never tell anybody everything you know

 

[Paul]

I think you might find that regedit.exe is classed as a system file,
therefore if you delete a system file,.Windows XP system file protection
will automaticly restore the file.

To prevent the last key from being remembered - follow the link from
microsoft.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q244004

 

[Donald A. Herman]

I sent you a zip file that contains the sample of how to do it.
I use these batch files and scripts alot instead of modifying stuff because
you never know what it may interfere with now or sometime down the road. All
that sample will do is change the "last key" value then start regedit. Just
right click on each of the files and select edit to see whats there so you
can do similer things.

Hope that helps.

 

[Wonderer]

I cannot say thank you enough. That is exactly what I wanted. I appreciate
it very much.

Sincerely

Steven Shelton

There are two secrets to success in life
1) Never tell anybody everything you know

 

[George Hester]

That is what I told you to do. Sorry it wasn't cear. Actually in Windows
XP #3 is unnecessary. You will loose all the values there when you remove
ALL permisions. Which is how I think it shoulde be done. Remember leaving
System there with full control can allow the system to take it over. Which
is basically what we want to avoid. But you got it so that's really all
that matters right?