Thread: Logging changes to registry

Logging changes to the registry Program installations or tuning tools often manipulate the Windows Registry, and you would like to keep track of the changes that are taking place.

'Before' and 'After' snapshots of the registry can help detect changed entries. A suitable tool for that is the free tool 'Regshot'. Extract the contents to a new folder. No installation process is required. Run 'regshot.exe' by double-clicking, before you run the action to be logged. Click on '1st Shot' and then the command 'Shot' in the; context menu. Alternatively, you can also use 'Shot and Save'. Then decide a name for the HIV file that is created. Now complete the installation or system change. Then click on '2nd Shot' and select the command 'Shot' again. Then using 'Compare', you can identify the differences. The tool generates a detailed text file report of which keys and values have been added, removed or changed. This file is automatically saved in the folder set as the 'Output path'. Before the next comparison, delete the comparison values of individual or all shots in the following dialog using 'Clear'.

NOTE

If any installation requires the system to be restarted, then Regshot must also be restarted before using the '2nd Shot' option, and it must re-read the first image through '1st Shot Load'. The tool can also monitor important folders such as 'C:\Windows'. For that, you first need to activate the option 'Scan dir1' and define it or any other folders to be checked. Make minimal changes between two images, so that the comparison is manageable. Even when you are not doing anything on the computer, two successive shots will still have minor differences.

BACKGROUND

The registry saves system settings and is continuously changed by Windows as well. Programs create new permanent entries in the system when installed, even if just for a short while. Tuning tools unfortunately sometimes go a step too far and delete necessary registry entries as well as unnecessary ones.