Any way to automatically edit registry values in XP?

[Tarrant64]

I've been around doing a lot of tweaking in the registry for Windows Xp and have found a lot of them to be useful. However, on one of my rigs I do a lot of testing and sometimes end up reformatting XP a lot. Is there any way to write a file to automatically change things in the registry. Like maybe a .bat file?(not sure what all you can do with those...just a thought). I wouldn't mind putting it all in one file or if I had to create a bunch of them. I just dont' like having to dig throught the registry all the time.

Thanks in advance.

 

[S0Y73NTGR33N]

Yeah there's an easy way to make a registry editor. We use them wear I work to do a quick registry customization... it does about 60 registry edits in a few seconds. I will soon reply with how to do it... but I'm letting you know it is very possible

-green

 

[Tarrant64]

Awesome! Thanks!

 

[S0Y73NTGR33N]

I think this'll do it


Importing and Exporting Registry Settings
A great feature of the Registry Editor is it's ability to import and export registry settings to a text file, this text file, identified by the .REG extension, can then be saved or shared with other people to easily modify local registry settings. You can see the layout of these text files by simply exporting a key to a file and opening it in Notepad, to do this using the Registry Editor select a key, then from the "Registry" menu choose "Export Registry File...", choose a filename and save. If you open this file in notepad you will see a file similar to the example below:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup]
"SetupType"=dword:00000000
"CmdLine"="setup -newsetup"
"SystemPrefix"=hex:c5,0b,00,00,00,40,36,02

The layout is quite simple, REGEDIT4 indicates the file type and version, [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup] indicates the key the values are from, "SetupType"=dword:00000000 are the values themselves the portion after the "=" will vary depending on the type of value they are; DWORD, String or Binary.

So by simply editing this file to make the changes you want, it can then be easily distributed and all that need to be done is to double-click, or choose "Import" from the Registry menu, for the settings to be added to the system Registry.

Deleting keys or values using a REG file:

It is also possible to delete keys and values using REG files. To delete a key start by using the same format as the the REG file above, but place a "-" symbol in front of the key name you want to delete. For example to delete the [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup] key the reg file would look like this:

REGEDIT4

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup]

The format used to delete individual values is similar, but instead of a minus sign in front of the whole key, place it after the equal sign of the value. For example, to delete the value "SetupType" the file would look like:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup] "SetupType"=-

Use this feature with care, as deleting the wrong key or value could cause major problems within the registry, so remember to always make a backup first.



*****

Let me know if it doesn't work

-green

 

[Tarrant64]

I'll give this a shot and get back to ya in a couple days(not currently at my system).

 

[KoolDrew]

You can just create a simple .reg file and double click it and the entrys will be added. I am just curios on what settings you are applying as many do nothing for performance especially the more popular ones like Iopagelocklimit which is ignored by Windows since Windows 200 SP1 yet many sites list them to be used under Windows XP. The same with DisablePagingExecutive, LargeSystemCache, IoPageLockLimit, IRQ8Priority, SecondLevelDataCache and AlwaysUnloadDlls. Those are some of the very popular tweaks floating around on the net that really do nothing for performance.

I do have a .reg i run when I reinstall the Os and stuff but this is not for performance. I have many registry settings to adjust Windows to my personal tastes. The best way to optimize Windows for best performance is probably altering settings through the control panel. Many registry tweaks do nothing for performance. Maintenance programs help with optimizing your system too like defraggers like O&O defrag etc..

 

[S0Y73NTGR33N]

I use a .reg to edit internet explorer settings and help some security issues that xp has. Well actually it's a VBasic program that runs .reg files and other things.. but it works pretty spiffy..

-green

 

[Tarrant64]

I use a few for performance tweaks and a lot of personal settings as well. I'm not talking like 15% performance tweaks or anything. Maybe some cache tweaks or whatever. I don't mean performance in general, sorry. I should have restated that. Just all tweaks.