Aditech » windows registry

Windows Registry in depth-Part 1

adithya — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 16:03:43 +0000

The Windows registry is a directory which stores settings and options for the operating system for Microsoft Windows 32-bit versions, 64-bit versions and Windows Mobile.

This is one of the least understood aspects of the windows OS.It’s basically a database of all the values and settings required by windows as well as several softwares in order to function properly.It was specifically developed in order to overcome the drawbacks of .ini files which were the earlier means of storing the settings(Even now some settings are stored in .ini files..excellent example for this is boot.ini file)

To open windows registry…Just run “regedit” in the run dialog box

Registry Concepts

Hives

Hives are nothing but the top levels in registry.There are typically 5 different hives. They are:

Each hive is associated with a certain functions

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT (HKCR):stores information about registered applications, such as file associations.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER (HKCU):stores settings that are specific to the currently logged-in user.This is infact a mirror to subkey of HKEY_USERS hive that corresponds to the user;that means the changes in HKCU is reflected in HKEY_USERS and vicevarsa
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE (HKLM):It is considered as the important hive in registry. it stores all the system related settings which are common to all the users.It also stores info regarding Hardware.
HKEY_USERS (HKU): As explained in HKCR, this has settings which are specific for different users of the computer. Each user is alloted a separate key within HKU
HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG: This is rather interesting hive in windows registry.It contains the info generated during runtime.The settings are not specifically stored permanently on disk.They are renewed or generated at boot-time

Key’s

The structure of windows registry is similar to the folders structure.Just imagine the Hives as drives,Keys as top folders,Sub keys as sub folders whithin a folder and last but not least values as files.

Take for example the above structure in the snapshot
The full path of the above structure is

HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG\Software\Fonts
or
HKCC\Software\Fonts

Here HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG or HKCC is the hive Software the key Fonts the subkey and FONTS.FON the value(String value)

Values

The actual setting is stored in these entities. There are basically 3 major type of values

String value(REG_SZ):Stores in the value in string or chars format.We can also include the Unicode chars in it
Binary Value(REG_Binary):Stores the value in Binary form. Usually major system and hardware setting are stored in this format.
DWORD Value(REG_DWORD):Stores the value in either Octal or decimal number format

There are 2 more(Expandable and Multi String value) but they are not so commonly used.

Creating a new value or sub key is easy.Just navigate where you want to create a new key or value and right click and select the appropriate option.To edit or add the contents to the value double click on the value and fill up the value

To be continued………..

Changing CD/DVD/Floppy Drive(s) label and icon

adithya — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 15:03:55 +0000

Bored of seeing the name something like “DVD-RW Drive” for your CD/DVD drive….?

wanna change the name to something like Sony or Samsung drive…?

You can change the icon of the harddisk by using autorun.inf or desktop.ini file but how to do so in case of CD/DVD/Floppy drive when the disc is not inserted…..?

Well there is a reg hack solution for all these… Just follow this tut….

Open your registry by issuing rededit in run dialog box
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion \Explorer\DriveIcons
BTW you can easily do the above step by using a software called regjump ..I have made a tutorial on how to use it.In case you have not seen it,visit here
Now in case if there is no DriveIcons key,create it
Now create a new key with the drive letter of your CD/DVD/Floppy drive i.e, if your CD/DVD/Floppy drive letter is F: then create a new key called F
Now enter the key path u just created
Create keys DefaultIcon and DefaultLabel under it
Do the above steps for all the CD/DVD drives(if you have more than one)

^^I have 2 CD/DVD drives and one Floppy drive..so the steps explained above has resulted in the above reg structure

Now in order to change the Drive label,navigate to the path DriveLabel under the desired drive letter(ex: F)
There is a string value called (Default), edit it with any name you like

That’s all you have sucessfully changes the drive label … There is no need to restart or logoff to view the changes…
Now to change the icon,navigate to path DriveIcon under the desired drive letter
There is a string value called (Default),edit it with the path of the icon(.ico) file
Well if you don’t have any ico file then no need to worry…i have another solution
Now to proceed further you need to enable the show hidden files and folder options,show extensions,show system file option from the Tools>>Folder Options menu,click the View tab in it and make the changes. The below screenshot will give u an idea

Now after doing this, go to any folder you like;right click on the empty space;choose Customize this folder option;click on the button Change Icon, select any icon you like…click apply.
You can see a file called Desktop.ini inside the folder
Open it..Typically it’s contents will be like this

[.ShellClassInfo] IconFile=%SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll IconIndex=105

note that this is just an example…the value of IconIndex need not be the same…It depends upon the icon you selected

Now copy the path of icon file i.e,%SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll in above case..paste the path in the (Default) value of the DriveIcon sub key
Don’t press Ok coz there is a small change;type , at the end and then type the number which is specified in IconIndex in destop.ini file i.e, in above case it’s 105
So the (Default) value will be %SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll,105

That’s all….The changes will takes place immediately
You can also use the other dll files provided that they contain the icon’s…Just click Browse button during icon selection and point to the dll file
The same procedure can be applied to hard disk drives as well

Hope you like this tutorial…If you have any doubts regarding this then fell free to ask anytime…
Waiting for ur comments and feedbacks as well as your SHOUTS

And don’t forget to share this article if you like this….I have installed the share plugin…

Reg Jump: Jump into the registry

adithya — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 09:03:26 +0000

Found an interesting registry path…. dunno how to remember this path for future use….. Well u can add the key path in the Favorites.But lets assume u reinstalled the Windows and now u need that registry path….What to do…?

In some article or tutorial it is specified to navigate to some reg path like HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\
Explorer\Advanced\Folder … and do something.. But ur bored or too lazy (like me) to manually navigate via regedit..?

Want to jump directly to a specific registry path in one go?

The answer to all this is REG JUMP from Sysinternals (now a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation)

First download this freeware(40 KB) from http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/Miscellaneous/Regjump.mspx

Then Copy regjump.exe file to “\WINDOWS\system32\” folder
Ex: C:\WINDOWS\system32\

Now open command prompt or dos prompt, type regjump and press enter
u must get like this…

But if u get like this

That means that u have not copied the file correctly into “\WINDOWS\system32\” folder
Do it correctly

Now let us learn how to navigate…Before doing so there are some conventions used in regjump to represent the hives(simply main root of the reg path)..

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT—>HKCR
HKEY_CURRENT_USER—>HKCU
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE–>HKLM
HKEY_USERS—>HKU
HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG–>HKCC

All other’s are same..i.e, if ur desired path is “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer”

Then u have to regard it as “HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer”

Hope u understood

Now type in cmd prompt

regjump HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

and press enter.

Regedit will open and will jump automatically to the specified path…..

Now let’s create a batch file to do this….

Open notepad and type the following

regjump HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

Save the file as “my key.bat” including quotes. Select any name but .bat is mandatory

Now open the .bat file u created.. Regedit will open and will jump automatically to the specified path…..

Like this u can make ur own batch files which will automatically open the required path in registry….

This tutorial is over but here are some points that I wish to share…

Q: Why we have to copy regjump.exe to “\WINDOWS\system32\”?

A: good question. Let me explain it in my own words.
Whenever u type any command in cmd prompt and press enter, if it’s not an inbuilt command (like dir, cls, cd etc, often called internal commands during dos times…), then it will search or find the command (mainly exe file) in some path and will execute it. By default it will do this for paths (u can add more path;go to next question to find how)

%SystemRoot%\system32\

%SystemRoot%

%SystemRoot%\System32\Wbem

That’s why I have told to copy regjump.exe file to \WINDOWS\system32\” which is one of the path it searches..

Q: Ok, but what if I don’t want to copy regjump.exe to \WINDOWS\system32\” I copied it to some ‘D:\regjump\’ folder Is there any way to make it work the same?

A: Yes there is a way. Adding the path of folder containing regjump.exe to the system variable called ‘Path’..
Right click on my computer icon and select properties…
Click the Advanced tab; click “Environmental Variables” button present at the bottom;
U can see two variables User and System variables. In the System variable select ‘Path’ and press Edit button; Another window opens; now don’t edit the variable name but u must add the path of folder containing regjump i.e., in our case it’s ‘D:\regjump\’ to the variable value It is important to note that each path must be separated by semicolon(;)..so before appending D:\regjump\ to the path add semicolon at the beginning to separate it from the previous path. Adding semicolon (;) at the end is optional .i.e.,

If the variable value before addition is something like

%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;%SystemRoot%\System32\Wbem

Then after addition of folder containing regjump path it should be

%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;%SystemRoot%\System32\Wbem;D:\regjump\

Note that u can add semicolon at the end too but it’s not mandatory.

Press Ok and again press Ok and again Ok…

Open cmd prompt and type regjump u must get the same dialog as shown above in the tut.

Q: I hate typing regjump name can’t I use name like jump or something like goreg..

A: Sure u can. it’s so simple…. just rename the file regjump to something u like..And remember to replace the regjump name with the name u had given

That’s it …
Hope u liked the tutorial…Don’t forget to give me responses and feedbacks…

Aditech » windows registry

Windows Registry in depth-Part 1

Registry Concepts

Hives

Key’s

Values

To be continued………..

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Changing CD/DVD/Floppy Drive(s) label and icon

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Reg Jump: Jump into the registry

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