The DameWare NT Utilities Registry view interface provides a very robust and easy to use environment for registry management of both local and remote NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/Windows7 machines. Registry updates can be initiated from one client machine via Batch Processing to any machine available in the Network Browser. The Registry view displays the machines included in the Batch Processing in the lower portion of the view. This lower portion of the Registry view works like a queue manager of the target machines to be updated. Machines can be added to the Batch Processing using drag and drop from the Network Browser. The machines added to the Batch Processing are saved so that each time you load the Registry view the machines will be listed. You can abort Batch Processing Registry updates any time during the process and any updates not yet executed will be cancelled. DNTU makes use of many different icons to help provide visual feedback to the user as to the status of registry batch processing updates on both local and remote machines.
The upper portion of the Registry view will show the registry
hives and keys (if any of the hive(s) are expanded) in the left
portion of the Registry view and the names and values for the
selected registry key, in the right portion of the Registry view,
for the selected machine. Each of the columns contained in the
upper portion and the columns contained in the lower portion of the
Registry view, support column sorting and column ordering. The
selected registry Hive(s)/Key(s) can be exported to a REGEDIT4 .REG
file by selecting the Registry/Export Registry File option from the
pull down menu. Once selected, a file dialog save window will be
displayed for you to select the location to save the registration
file on the local machine. A registration file may also be imported
by selecting the Registry/Import Registry File option from the pull
down menu. (Refer to Batch Processing below for batch registration
file updates.) DNTU supports the Microsoft RegEdit4 signature file
format. The lower portion of the Registry view lists the Machine
name, Action, Status, Machine Type and Error columns. The Error
column will show the error code and error description whenever an
error condition has occurred.
The DameWare NT Utilities Registry view also includes a binary
editor for adding and changing the values for REG_BINARY data
types.
The following options are available from the mini-toolbar located
at the bottom of the Registry view.
Delete Registry Key or Value
Copy Registry Key to Clipboard
Batch Processing When selected will prompt for the REGEDIT4 Registry export file (.reg) to be used to import to the machines selected in the Registry machines view. Once a Batch Schedule has been submitted the machine icons of the machines in the list will change according to the status of the registry update(s) submitted to the individual machine(s).
Abort Batch Processing When a batch is being processed, selecting this option will terminate the next registry update scheduled for execution. This may be the next key/value within the currently executing batch machine’s registry update or the next machine in the batch machine list.
Stops the current view action.
Refresh the current view.
Notes:
DNTU’s Registry View currently does not support the following functionality:
Batch deleting of Registry keys:
REGEDIT5 formatted Registry (.reg) files.
Changing of permissions of Registry keys.
The following rules govern the content of these value entry components:
The name of the value is a string of up to 16,000 Unicode characters (32K). This name can contain backslash (\) characters. The name itself can be null (that is, " ").
The data type of the value is REG_BINARY, REG_DWORD, REG_EXPAND_SZ, REG_MULTI_SZ or REG_SZ. The DameWare NT Utilities Registry view, as well as the NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/Windows7 Registry Editor, allows edits values of these types only.
The value in a value entry can be data of a size up to 1 MB in any data type except REG_DWORD, including arbitrary strings and raw binary data. However, to be efficient, values larger than 2048 bytes should be stored as files with the filenames stored in the Registry.
The Registry preserves case as you type it for any entry but ignores case in evaluating the data. However, the data is defined by specific applications (or users) so applications that use the data might be case sensitive depending on how the program that uses it treats the data.
Numeric values and ranges that take the REG_DWORD data type can be expressed as either hexadecimal or decimal numbers, or in hex or decimal base. If the defined value is represented in a hexadecimal base, the value is preceded by ’r;0x’ to indicate that it is hexadecimal.
To assist you in applying changes to hexadecimal-base value entries or interpreting the current values, you can use a scientific calculator, such as the Calculator application (Calc.exe) to make conversions between hexadecimal and decimal values.
The following status codes and descriptions are available within the lower pane of the Registry view.
None No Batch registry updates have been performed.
Complete Okay status
Error The Batch registry update failed. Refer to the Error field displayed in the lower portion of the Registry view window.
Pending The Batch registry update is in the queue to be imported on this machine.
Active The Batch registry update is in progress on this machine.