RegSafe Professional from Imagine LAN

If you edit the registry on a regular basis, you might not be satisfied with the standard functions provided by the built-in registry-editing tools supplied with Windows NT/2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003. If so, then RegSafe Professional from Imagine LAN is just for you!

RegSafe Professional Edition 2.0 is a suite of tools designed to provide Network Administrators, IS/IT professionals, and Power Users with the ability to carry out advanced Registry management on 32-bit Windows PCs. RegSafe provides comprehensive Registry editing and management capabilities not found in other professional-level Registry-editing tools, all from within a protected environment (Fig. 14.5).

Figure 14.5: RegSafe is a powerful registry editor with extended functionality

The most attractive features of RegSafe are listed below:

• Protected Environment. RegSafe automatically saves a copy of the Registry before you introduce any modifications. In Chapter 3, where we discussed new functions of the Regedit.exe utility supplied with Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, we noted that despite all of its advantages, the new Regedit version lacks the Read-Only mode (which, as you remember, was present in Regedt32.exe). Well, RegSafe has this useful function, which is particularly appropriate for beginners who have only just begun to study the registry structure. Furthermore, in contrast to standard registry-editing tools (Regedit.exe and Regedt32.exe), it has an Undo function, which is available when editing the registry. Unlike other Registry-editing tools, if you make a mistake while editing with RegSafe, you won't trash your system. Even if you mistakenly delete something from your registry, the first thing RegSafe does is take a registry snapshot. It then prompts you to confirm the operation (Fig. 14.6). If you realize later that you have made an error, you can easily undo it (Fig. 14.7).

  
  Figure 14.6: RegSafe prompts the user to confirm the deletion of registry entries

  
  Figure 14.7: Great! It has an Undo function

• Registry Comparison. RegSafe goes far beyond simple Registry Editing. Consider, for example, its powerful Comparison features. You can compare Current or Snapshot Registries, compare keys/values within the same Registry, compare access control lists (ACL) on Windows NT/2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 systems. It's fantastic!

• Powerful export features. Administrators and other advanced users will appreciate RegSafe's export feature, which allows portions of a Registry or Registry-comparison-results tree to be exported to a REG file (Regedit4 format).

• Partial or full registry restoration. If an unwanted change to the Registry was made or a problem with the Registry is detected, RegSafe can perform a partial or full restoration of a Registry snapshot to the current ("live") Registry.

• Registry restoration for non-booting systems. I am a big fan of restoring unbootable systems (it just became my favorite hobby). If you are like me, you'll appreciate the capabilities provided by RegSafe in this field. The developers of this magnificent program have implemented so-called Command Prompt SOS technology, which helps to restore the registry on all existing Windows versions (yes, on all of them, including Windows 9x, Windows ME, Windows NT/2000/XP, and Windows Server 2003 systems with FAT, FAT32, and NTFS-formatted drives). In addition, RegSafe provides Recovery Console restoration on Windows 2000/XP.

All this makes the registry editor of choice for anyone, from beginners to experts. Furthermore, the "Editor Only" version of RegSafe is free (despite the fact that its functions are limited in comparison to the fully-functional retail versions, it is still the most powerful registry-editing tool I have seen). Download this indispensable tool from http://www.imaginelan.com.