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Puzzling Registry Size Issue


Dave-H

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I'm not sure but it may be necessary to break up the import into multiple pieces.

I was able to build a Registry of 19MB by repeatedly importing a synthesized import file containing a key with over a megabyte of value data in it, changing the Key name each time.

I created the large Registry to test my RAM Limitation Patch's /M option that supports large Registries with Windows 9x.

Thanks for the input, Mr Loew.

I also tried this by exporting the individual hives (HKLM, HKCU, etc.) separately, then importing these REG files one-by-one. I used the User.dat (/L) and user name (/R) command line switches to avoid breaking the working registry. Unfortunately, after a certain size was reached (can't recall exact size, something over 8M), importing further hive REG files failed.

Joe.

PS. To our respected mod's : I think this thread should be listed as Important/Stickified/Pinned.

Edited by jds
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Another data point. My registry size (base 10):

SYSTEM.DAT 14.5MB

USER.DAT 3.1MB

Wow!

Mine's 13MB and 1.8MB respectively.

I recently deleted dotNet 1.0 and 1.1 frameworks because my system was becoming unstable. I believe that was due to this registry size issue, since I wasn't actually running any dotNet applications, particularly not the 1.0 or 1.1 varieties.

Joe.

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PS. To our respected mod's : I think this thread should be listed as Important/Stickified/Pinned.

Agreed. Done!

Would this imply that dencorso is to be considered among the respected mod's (in the sense of NOT among the UNrespected ones)? :unsure::ph34r:

;):angel:lol:

Seriously, a "semi-random" idea, possibly void of any utility, would the offline registry library work?

http://reboot.pro/11212/

http://reboot.pro/11312/

(kernelEx/whatever)?

jaclaz

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Seriously, a "semi-random" idea, possibly void of any utility, would the offline registry library work?

http://reboot.pro/11212/

http://reboot.pro/11312/

(kernelEx/whatever)?

jaclaz

Thank you sooooo much for those interesting links. :thumbup

It's taken a while to follow all the threads/leads. I've downloaded 'offlinereg.zip', 'RawReg13.zip' and even 'regv.zip' and 'regs.zip'. I didn't download the "regfs" stuff, because I have my doubts it's a viable option here. I'll try to find if a 9X version of the "Offline Registry Library" was ever released, since at a file level, 9X and NT registries aren't compatible (they don't even use the same file names or number of files). Then I'll see if there's any practical way to apply any of these tools to this problem.

Joe.

Edited by jds
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It's taken a while to follow all the threads/leads. I've downloaded 'offlinereg.zip', 'RawReg13.zip' and even 'regv.zip' and 'regs.zip'. I didn't download the "regfs" stuff, because I have my doubts it's a viable option here. I'll try to find if a 9X version of the "Offline Registry Library" was ever released, since at a file level, 9X and NT registries aren't compatible (they don't even use the same file names or number of files). Then I'll see if there's any practical way to apply any of these tools to this problem.

I will give you some good and some bad news. :w00t:

There is NO such thing as a "9x version of the Offline Registry Library" (AFAIK, but I tend to be usually quite well informed on this specific topic ;) ).

The Rawreg is (unfortunately) a half @§§ed left in an UNfinished state, and it is perfectly UNuseful. :no:

Still AFAIK the actual file format for the Registry has not big changes between 9x and NT :whistle: , and since you are going to use offline access to the file(s) the actual filenames (and the way they are combined in an actual ONliine registry) is pretty much irrelevant.

Compare with:

http://paullee.ru/regstry.html

Via google translate:

http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ru&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fpaullee.ru%2Fregstry.html

jaclaz

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I will give you some good and some bad news. :w00t:

There is NO such thing as a "9x version of the Offline Registry Library" (AFAIK, but I tend to be usually quite well informed on this specific topic ;) ).

The Rawreg is (unfortunately) a half @§§ed left in an UNfinished state, and it is perfectly UNuseful. :no:

Still AFAIK the actual file format for the Registry has not big changes between 9x and NT :whistle: , and since you are going to use offline access to the file(s) the actual filenames (and the way they are combined in an actual ONliine registry) is pretty much irrelevant.

Compare with:

http://paullee.ru/regstry.html

That's just bad news, isn't it? If there were a 9X version of the library, then the offline registry editor tool might be rebuilt and hopefully work OK with the 9X registry files. But as an offline registry editor works directly on the files, not the loaded registry via an API, how can an NT version be used, since 9X has two registry files, whereas NT has about half a dozen? In other words, if I were to (re)build NT registry files from exported 9X "reg" file(s), how would I merge the half dozen NT registry files into the two registry files that 9X requires?

Joe.

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The only tool that's able to deal with both types of registry is Regview, by the "General Paul Lee". Version 4.2 is quite stable, although not very intuitive to use: supposedly, if one starts it with no parameter, it would allow one to navigate to the file of interest, but I've never been able to get that part to work OK... when, however, it's run with the name of the target registry file one wants to edit as 1st and only command line parameter, it works like clockwork. However I've never used it to modify multi-string values in the XP registry, so I cannot guarantee it works as advised with thouse types, which are the main difference between the XP and 98SE registries. With the 98SE registry it just works.

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That's just bad news, isn't it? If there were a 9X version of the library, then the offline registry editor tool might be rebuilt and hopefully work OK with the 9X registry files. But as an offline registry editor works directly on the files, not the loaded registry via an API, how can an NT version be used, since 9X has two registry files, whereas NT has about half a dozen? In other words, if I were to (re)build NT registry files from exported 9X "reg" file(s), how would I merge the half dozen NT registry files into the two registry files that 9X requires?

It seems to me like you are still missing a point. :ph34r:

The Registry (online) is nothing but an assembly of 2 (win 9x) or 5 (NT) "databases" (or actually IMHO "filesystems") files.

See also:

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=24370&st=0&p=168043entry168043

Since you are seemingly old enough to remember good ol' DOS databases, you have to think to it as you would at a good ol DBaseIII (not that more modern databases are that much different ;)).

You had a number of tables containing DATA, that were assembled and accessed in an "assembled" way through a form, and the results (still coming form the assembly) were visualized through a report.

The normal online registry editor is nothing but a combined form/report "DBase" or "Clipper" app.

Of course, like you could use *any* dbase uility to access directly the tables, you can use *any* registry tool to access the single files composing the Registry (offline).

If you prefer, the Registry (online) as you are used to see it, is a building erected on-the-fly when booting with a number of bricks (and broken again into single elements when shutting down).

Nothing prevents you to access the bricks when they are not assembled all together.

jaclaz

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AFAIK the structure/format of the registry database files on disk is different between 9x and NT OSes which is why offline registry editor apps for NT can't open 9x .dat files.

One utility which can apparently edit 9x registry dat files is the registered version of Regdat 1.3, however its website has disappeared and I am not sure whether it can be bought anymore and I don't know if it's better, besides being much more user friendly, than this russian editor running in a console which for editing is as limited as an hex editor.

Windows ME uses three files for the registry btw.

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AFAIK the structure/format of the registry database files on disk is different between 9x and NT OSes which is why offline registry editor apps for NT can't open 9x .dat files.

Yep, this is what I was not sure about :blushing: .

If I recall correctly the mentioned Paul.lee thingy can open both, it is very possible that it has a "double" internal parser.

The site is not reachable today, just in case:

http://wayback.archive.org/web/*/http://paullee.ru/regstry.html

Since the source code tor the "real mode" version is available, maybe someone familiar with Borland Pascal may be interested in woring on it....

The original site for regdat:

http://people.freenet.de/h.ulbrich/

is also no more (and unfortunately is not cached in the Wayback Machine) :(.

The "main" site has only the "front page" cached:

http://web.archive.org/web/20110202154630/http://regdat.com/

The tool itself (shareware) is still available here:

http://files.brothersoft.com/utilities/registry_tools/Regdat_15017.zip

jaclaz

Edited by jaclaz
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AFAIK the structure/format of the registry database files on disk is different between 9x and NT OSes which is why offline registry editor apps for NT can't open 9x .dat files.

One utility which can apparently edit 9x registry dat files is the registered version of Regdat 1.3, however its website has disappeared and I am not sure whether it can be bought anymore and I don't know if it's better, besides being much more user friendly, than this russian editor running in a console which for editing is as limited as an hex editor.

Windows ME uses three files for the registry btw.

I managed to track them down (Win9x and NT versions) just a couple of days ago. See here in another thread.

Still working direct download right at this moment.

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