Registry editor for external .reg files...?

esuhl

My friend has asked me to help him implement a fix on his PC that requires some significant registry changes. It's a long story but I need to see the whole of the HKLM\SOFTWARE key, which he has exported and emailed to me... unfortunately it's ~240MB in size!!!

I've tried opening it in various text editors (before I realised how long the file was!) but it won't open in any of them (because the file is too large).

I've found an application that will read .reg files and present them in hives and keys (like regedit does), but it costs €49.

Does anyone know of any similar free software that can do that, or is there a way of loading a .reg file in regedit for examination without importing it into the local registry?

closed

if it's really 240MB, the machine is ready for a windows reinstall

http://www.yurisw.com/HEdit.htm (just realised this is now $99!, version 3 was free, and you'll probably be able to find it somewhere if you google)

if you know the changes, you could just put them in a txt file, save as .reg and send it to be merged, or cut down the file size to more relevant sections http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/registry_file_offline_export.html

or just remote control it across the net

fwor

One of the great weaknesses of Windows - the registry: essentially a binary file with type, length, value entries which can only easily be read sequentially - often making it a bottleneck in any system...

Have you tried the built-in reg.exe command? Allegedly it can open a registry in any file you choose - though luckily I've never needed to do this...

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/170229-36-regedit-external-hive-files-comm

esuhl

closed wrote: »

if it's really 240MB, the machine is ready for a windows reinstall

Ohhh... I got that wrong, actually. It's really 284MB! That sounds insane for a text file, but when I exported the same key on my PC it's still 172MB.

closed wrote: »

http://www.yurisw.com/HEdit.htm (just realised this is now $99!, version 3 was free, and you'll probably be able to find it somewhere if you google)

Thanks, but that looks like a hex editor for binary files. I think I'm looking more for something that can open a plain text .reg file and display the contents in the hive/key hierarchy (like in regedit).

fwor wrote: »

Have you tried the built-in reg.exe command? Allegedly it can open a registry in any file you choose - though luckily I've never needed to do this...

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/170229-36-regedit-external-hive-files-comm

Interesting... I'll think I'll see if I can get my mate to read out the keys in HKLM\SOFTWARE and get him to export and send me just the ones that sound relevant. But I'll definitely give reg.exe a whirl if that doesn't get us anywhere.

Thanks all! :beer:

waddler_8

esuhl wrote: »

My friend has asked me to help him implement a fix on his PC that requires some significant registry changes.

What exactly is the "fix" you're trying to implement?

paddyrg

At 248MB, the solution to the problem isn't tinkering with the registry, it's a flatten and rebuild, and tell him to steer clear of coverdiscs (or the internet equivalent!) in teh future.

Have you tried notepad++ ? It is free and awesome, may help?

esuhl

paddyrg wrote: »

At 248MB, the solution to the problem isn't tinkering with the registry, it's a flatten and rebuild, and tell him to steer clear of coverdiscs (or the internet equivalent!) in teh future.

Have you tried notepad++ ? It is free and awesome, may help?

Thanks, but the PC seems to be functioning perfectly other than the problem he reported. Is 284MB (not 248!) really a problem? Like I said it's 170MB on my relatively-clean PC, and I presume that the binary registry files are far smaller (due to the repetition of key names in .reg files)... Anyway, I'm not convinced that a re-installation will solve the problem as it's likely that the problematic driver entries that I'm trying to remove will be reinstalled with the recovery image. If all else fails, though, I'll suggest this as a last resort - I know how surprising it can be to reinstall the OS and realise how badly it was performing previously!

I did actually manage to get the .reg file to open in Metapad. I tried to replace all references to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE with [HKEY_MATES_MACHINE, thinking that I could merge that with my own registry (briefly) to examine it without overwriting my own hives, but the find-and-replace process was still running on my PC several hours later, so I gave up!

I think I only need to see HKLM\SOFTWARE\Intel anyway, so I'll ask for a copy of that - hopefully it will be more manageable in size!

waddler_8 wrote: »

What exactly is the "fix" you're trying to implement?

I'm trying to remove entries to an onboard graphics chipset as there have been documented cases where Windows loads the incorrect OpenGL driver in PCs that have multiple display adapters.

myrrh

you could try disabling the on board graphics rather than mess around with the registry files. I assume that you have tried the latest Microsoft updates and searched for drivers / hot fixes to cure this.

S0litaire

Get him to send you the files stored in

%SystemRoot%\System32\Config\

Then you can open them with RegEdit.exe and make the changes.
Then export the *.reg files for him to import into his system.

DON'T work with the EXPORTED regestry! it's too big to be usefull!!!

esuhl

myrrh wrote: »

you could try disabling the on board graphics rather than mess around with the registry files. I assume that you have tried the latest Microsoft updates and searched for drivers / hot fixes to cure this.

Apparently the only relevant option in the BIOS is to set the primary display adapter (Onboard / PCI / PCI-E). So I'm assuming that it's not possible to disable the onboard graphics. The OS is up-do-date with patches from Windows Update and I've already installed asked for the latest nVidia drivers to be installed. I hadn't specifically searched the MS site (although I'd done a fair bit of general web searching) but I've just had a look and can't find anything, unfortunately.

S0litaire wrote: »

Get him to send you the files stored in

%SystemRoot%\System32\Config\

Then you can open them with RegEdit.exe and make the changes.

So that's where the registry hides! Okay - it looks like the SOFTWARE file relates to HKLM\SOFTWARE so I can certainly get a copy of that.

But... How do I open it with regedit without overwriting my own registry hives? Do I use "load hive" to attach the external hive to HKEY_USERS in my registry...?

S0litaire

it's been a while since i've used Regedit (make that 2 years!!) but think you can open them from within the program.
you might need to use regedit32 instead...