Chapter 10: Finding Registry Settings

Chapter 10

Finding Registry Settings

This chapter shows you how to relate a setting in the user interface to a value in the registry. Power users can use this information to find their own registry hacks. IT professionals will find registry information even more useful because they can use the information to locate settings in the registry for a variety of purposes. For example, after they've found settings, they can build administrative templates for them and deploy the settings on their network. They can write scripts that automatically apply the settings they found. They can even use this information to help build and deploy better default user profiles.

Three basic techniques are available for tracking down settings. The first, and often most effective, method is comparing two snapshots of the registry. Take one snapshot before changing a setting and the second after you've made a change. The second method is monitoring the registry to detect changes that a program makes. Monitoring is often difficult because of the way Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and other programs do a lot in the registry. Nonetheless, with a good tool and the tips in this chapter, it is an occasionally useful method. The last method for tracking down registry settings is auditing, which is the most difficult to use effectively and causes performance degradation. Because the first method is often most effective, that's where I start.