There are a lot of important Windows settings you can only change by editing the Registry. For example, in Windows 10, you need to tweak the Registry to bring your mouse up to maximum speed or stop the Edge Browser from restoring all its tabs after a crash. However, editing the Registry can be time-consuming, as you have to navigate around a huge tree structure to find the right 'keys.'
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It also can be risky because you can harm the user experience if you accidentally delete the wrong thing. You certainly wouldn't want a semi-computer-literate user touching the Windows Registry.
However, if there's a registry change that you need to make frequently or you want to share with others, you can build a.Reg file, which makes any changes you want with a double click. For example, if you want to on five different computers, you can make a.Reg file to do it and then copy that file onto every PC you own or give it to your octogenarian parents and tell them to run it. Here's how to create a.Reg file for Windows 7, 8 or 10. Note: Editing the Windows registry is risky so be careful and, if you're not a moderate-to-advanced user, ask someone else for help. Using Export in the Registry Editor The simplest way to create a.Reg file is by making the change you want in the registry editor and then using the editor's export feature. However, this method only works if all the changes are in the same folder.
Open the Registry Editor. You can get there by hitting Windows + R, typing 'regedit' into the run box and clicking OK. Navigate to the registry key or value that you wish to export and select it. Note that keys are the 'folders' in the registry while values are the individual settings within those folders. If you want an entire key copied, highlight the key. Select Export from the File menu. Name the file and click Save. You must name it with the.reg extension.
Your file will now work for anyone who double clicks it. Editing a.Reg File If you want to modify more than just a single key (and its children) or value with your.Reg file, you'll need to modify it with a text editor. Open an existing.Reg or create a blank document using a text editor such as Notepad. Make sure the top line reads 'Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00' if it does not already. Add the names of registry keys (aka folders) in brackets on their own lines. Autocad 2007 setup. If a key does not already exist at this location, the.Reg file will create it.
For example, enter 'HKEYLOCALMACHINE SOFTWARE Policies Microsoft Windows Personalization' to create or write-to that key. Enter the values on their own lines beneath the appropriate key name. For example, if we want to set NoLockScreen to DWORD value 1, we write 'NoLockScreen'=dword:00000001. You can enter as many different keys and values as you want. While DWORD values, begin with 'dword:' and several zeros, string values are just enclosed in quotation marks. Note: Different registry values are DWORD, String values or other types such as multi-string value or QWORD (64-bit). The type depends on what Windows or an individual application is looking for.
DWORD and String Value are the most common, particularly for registry hacks. Set a value to '-' if you wish to delete the value rather than setting it. Put a '-' in front of a key name if you wish to delete the entire key and all keys and values underneath it. Don't do this unless you're sure you're not deleting something important. Save your file. Running the.Reg File Now, anyone who has the file.Reg file can make these registry tweaks by double clicking the file and selecting Yes if prompted.
Quite a few of your tips discuss options in Outlook that can only be configured in the. I see things then like Key, Value name, Value type and Value. How does it work exactly and what should I do with those values? Those values represent the location and the construction of the registry key. Let’s walk through it by means of an example; Key: HKEYCURRENTUSER Software Microsoft Office Outlook Preferences Value name: ShowBCC Value type: REGDWORD Value: 1 Open the Registry Editor The first step is opening the Registry Editor of course. There are various ways to do this but the easiest is to simply search for it in the Start Menu;.
How To Check Registry Keys Remotely
Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10 Start- type; regedit. Windows XP Start- Run- regedit In Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10, you could be prompted by User Account Control (UAC). In this case you’ll either have to press Continue or supply administrator credentials. In Windows XP, the Run command might not always be visible in the Start Menu. An alternative method to bring up the Run command is to press the Windows Logo key on your keyboard and the R button at the same time. For all versions of Windows, you could also open the Registry Editor directly by locating regedit in the Windows folder. The default location is; C: Windows regedit.exe Locate the key Once in the registry, you’ll have to locate the key.
In our example this is; HKEYCURRENTUSER Software Microsoft Office Outlook Preferences Basically it is just like browsing through a folder tree in Explorer to get where you need to be. In our example you see I’ve written. This is actually not the name of the key but should be replaced with the version number of Outlook that you are using.
Click on the link to find out your version number of Outlook if you do not know. When you get to the Outlook key, it could be that the location behind it (in our example: Preferences) is not there in the registry yet. In this case, you’ll have to create the key via; Edit- New- Key Create key values Once you are in the correct location, you’ll find the key values in that location within the right pane. In our case the key value name is: ShowBCC If the key value name is not in the right pane, then you need to create it manually. This is where the value type plays a role. In our case: REGDWORD.
You can create a new key value name of the type REGDWORD via;. 32-bit version of Windows Edit- New- DWORD Value.
64-bit version of Windows Edit- New- DWORD (32-bit) Value Note that most of the key value names are case sensitive. So you’ll have to use the name exactly as indicated. So in our example, ShowBCC would be correct and ShowBcc or showbcc would be wrong. There are the following value types and their corresponding name in the Edit menu; REGSZ String Value REGBINARY Binary Value REGDWORD DWORD Value or DWORD (32-bit) Value REGQWORD QWORD (64-bit) Value REGMULTISZ Multi-String Value REGEXPANDSZ Expandable String Value Assign the value After you have created the key value name with the correct value type, you can assign it its value. In our case; 1. To set this value, simply double click the created key value name and type it in the Value Data field. REGDWORD and REGQWORD values can be shown or entered in both a hexadecimal form or in a decimal form.
Upon opening the value name, you can toggle the between the 2 base types. It is usually either specified or clear whether the value is represented in a decimal or a hexadecimal form. When the value is between 0-9, the base type doesn’t matter.
If the value contains letters (between A-F), then it is always hexadecimal. The REGBINARY value type works a bit different as well.
When you open these, you’ll see it starts with 0000 and if it has a second line, it will be 0008. These are indicators of how many bytes have been specified. These bytes are in the center and grouped by 2 character ranging from 0-9 and from A-F (hexadecimal). In the right column there is a character representation of the hexadecimal value.
64 Bit Registry
Because of the nature of the REGBINARY key, this could look like gibberish to you. When you need to type in a REGBINARY value manually, they are usually referring to typing in the middle column only and the value is grouped by two. For instance: 00 00 01 00 Effect of the key For this particular key the value of 1 means that it will enable the option and a value of 0 will disable it. All other values for this key are ignored and the default is assumed. The default is as if the key did not exist. For this particular key the default is 0.
How To Check Registry Key Windows 10
Other keys could behave differently though, which is why there usually is a description for the Value of the registry entry as well. In some case, after applying the key, you’ll either need to restart the application or your computer. That is usually specified as well.
Last modified: November 25, 2015.
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