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Is there a way to access a registry file that isn't the one currently loaded?

BoberFett

BoberFett

Lifer
I want to try to extract information from the registry of a computer long gone. Does anybody know if there's a program that can read the registry from a file? Everything I've found just accesses the current registry.

Will I just have to suck it up and try to boot a machine using the old registry in order to search through it?
 
regedt32 can edit the registry of a remote computer, but I don't see where it can open a system.dat and user.dat that isn't the currently loaded registry.
 
I just noticed you said system.dat/user.dat. regedt32 is a NT util and I don't know for sure if it can load Win9X registry hives, if it doesn't work you're on your own because it's been so long since I've used Win9X...
 
Originally posted by: Nothinman
I just noticed you said system.dat/user.dat. regedt32 is a NT util and I don't know for sure if it can load Win9X registry hives, if it doesn't work you're on your own because it's been so long since I've used Win9X...
Click to expand...

If that is the case, then he can use the REGEDIT.EXE DOS-mode utility that comes with Win9x. Make sure to use the appropriate one for the OS, the internal format of the registry changed between Win95 and Win98. You can then export the contents of the .DAT file into a text-based .REG script, and then re-import parts into another .DAT file if needed. (Don't forget, that the WINDOWS\USER.DAT file is only for the default user, if you have seperate user profiles enabled under Win9x, look for USER.DAT under WINDOWS\Profiles\(username).)

I actually wish NT had that sort of utility, having to re-install another copy of NT, just to access/mount the registry hives of the failed OS install, is kind of a pain. Unfortunately, that's actually MS's suggested "best practice" - to have two OS installs of NT, one for backup/recovery purposes such as this.
 
I don't work with Win9x, but using regedt32 to do a Registry/Load Hive is a WONDERFULLY useful troubleshooting tool.

Just be careful! 🙂
 
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