Easily find registry locations in Windows Vista

johngalt · May 27, 2008

Hi, all,

Just wanted to pass along a nice little tweaked program for making the registry a lot easier to use.

Even with Windows Vista, the basic registry editor has not changed - and one *sorely* missing feature is an 'address bar' of sorts, allowing you easy navigation through the registry.

Ever read a tutorial, like http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/148240-copy-path-add-remove-context-menu.html?ltr=C and wished you could easily open that registry key without having to navigate through the tree on the left and find each individual hive / key?

Well, with RegEditX - Tweaks for the Windows Registry Editor (REGEDIT) you can - quickly, easily, and painlessly.

See, RegEditX has that missing address bar - so, if you want to go to the key mentioned in the tutorial I linked above, HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellx\ContextMenuHandlers\CopyAsPathMenu, you simply copy the entire thing, paste it in the address bar in RegEditX, and presto! You're there.

If you have need to use the registry a lot, or are like me, like to add system tweaks by hand, then this is a must have program for you.

*WARNING* - Editing the registry can result in your computer being rendered unusable. You assume all risks if you decide to edit anything in the registry. I assume no liability in providing you with this link. As always, be sure to make backups prior to changing anything.

dmex · May 27, 2008

johngalt said:
Hi, all,

Ever read a tutorial, like http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/148240-copy-path-add-remove-context-menu.html?ltr=C and wished you could easily open that registry key without having to navigate through the tree on the left and find each individual hive / key?

Hi John,

Did you know the "Copy as Path" context menu is already in Vista and you dont need to edit the registry to bring it up.... Just hold shift while right-clicking on an object like a folder or file :eek:

Steven

johngalt · May 27, 2008

Yes, I knew that - that is why I used that one as the example :P

BleepingCrazy · May 27, 2008

is there something we can add to the shortcut to make it run as admin by default?

johngalt · May 27, 2008

Well, there's two things:

1) On install, it will probably say it cannot find regedit - reboot.

2) After that, every time it tries to run, you get a UAC prompt - it automatically runs as admin.

3) I mentioned in another thread on how to automatically runs items with admin privileges using a neat trick in Task Scheduler - Dmex is gonna write up a tutorial on it soon, but I need to test that a bit - I think it may not work with items that automatically are requesting system level privileges....

BleepingCrazy · May 27, 2008

nice one John, thanks!

sidney1st · Jun 3, 2008

johngalt said:
Even with Windows Vista, the basic registry editor has not changed - and one *sorely* missing feature is an 'address bar' of sorts, allowing you easy navigation through the registry.

It remembers me a little vb script i made a while ago as i often open my registry.

I put the attached zipped vb script in my windows folder so i can run it like regedit.

What this script does: Copy an address like this one:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\CD Burning
Then run the script.
Another tip, when no address has been copied (last copy), it just opens regedit with no expanded folders (last key viewed normally)

It can be added in the IE context menu.

dmex · Jun 3, 2008

sidney1st said:
johngalt said:

Even with Windows Vista, the basic registry editor has not changed - and one *sorely* missing feature is an 'address bar' of sorts, allowing you easy navigation through the registry.

Click to expand...

It remembers me a little vb script i made a while ago as i often open my registry.

I put the attached zipped vb script in my windows folder so i can run it like regedit.

What this script does: Copy an address like this one:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\CD Burning
Then run the script.
Another tip, when no address has been copied (last copy), it just opens regedit with no expanded folders (last key viewed normally)

It can be added in the IE context menu.

Thats a very cool way of opening the registry :cool:

any plans on a topic of these useful utilities you have collected?

Cheers Sindey1st :geek:

Steven

sidney1st · Jun 5, 2008

dmex said:
any plans on a topic of these useful utilities you have collected?

Hi Steven,
I don't collect them, i just make some when i need a particular task to be done which is not implemented in Vista or when i have to perform so many clicks to open so many windows just to get what i want or mainly to perform a task which is just not normally possible to perform in vista, in this case, it is like a challenge.
For example like the one above but implemented in IE with just a select link, right click and open in registry or select text in ie and open either in notepad/ultraedit or word, etc.... And to be honnest, i am too lazy to write tutorials, i admire Shawn the way he wrote the tutorial section

dmex · Jun 5, 2008

sidney1st said:
dmex said:

any plans on a topic of these useful utilities you have collected?

Click to expand...

Hi Steven,
I don't collect them, i just make some when i need a particular task to be done which is not implemented in Vista or when i have to perform so many clicks to open so many windows just to get what i want or mainly to perform a task which is just not normally possible to perform in vista, in this case, it is like a challenge.
For example like the one above but implemented in IE with just a select link, right click and open in registry or select text in ie and open either in notepad/ultraedit or word, etc.... And to be honnest, i am too lazy to write tutorials, i admire Shawn the way he wrote the tutorial section

Brink and Myself can create the Tutorials if you like? How many to you have?

sidney1st · Jun 5, 2008

I have plenty of, i even don't remember where i put them all, i just write them when a function is needed, it takes often less time than trying to find in my mess.
I use personally the right click in IE8/maxthon (work IE6+) to open a selected text/address in notepad & regedit, one to get my private and public ips, one to list the codecs used (really not often as wmp11 has a nice easy function on it and few others more like the reboot one, one to adjust my router WIFI strenght (quite few scripts for the router) . But i have a lot which were required by friends or participants to forums.
So if you have ideas, no problem i can try to manage.
Some are quite "specials" for example to activate/deactivate some interesting functions in vista but they are quite "dangerous" to be used sometimes on different configurations but very helpful sometimes when some functions go weird.
And to finish, some very special scripts which i can't talk about as they were made on demand when i used to work..... Yes i am retired

I am not only talking about VBS, don't forget that Vista is a big script by itself on many parts of it.

Easily find registry locations in Windows Vista

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