?'s About Registry Manipulation

[xunil76]

ok, so i have two different .reg files, one that was created before installing a program (CDex), and one created after installing it. i am using a program called ExamDiff Pro to compare the two files to see the differences between them, and want to copy/paste the sections that are different into a 3rd file so that i can easily "reinstall" the program if i decide to do a reformat of windows (using WinXP Pro SP2, btw). i install all my programs to a different partition than my OS, so a reformat will not wipe out all my program files.

anyway, when i view the lines that are different, ExamDiff Pro seems to be adding an extra backslash to some of the paths, but when i locate that string in the actual registry, it only has one.....see the image & code listed below for examples.

in the registry:

in ExamDiff:

"UninstallString"="\"D:\\CDex\\uninstall.exe\""

what i need to know is should i keep the code exactly the way ExamDiff Pro is displaying it when i create my new .reg file, or should i remove the extra backslashes ?

[Takeshi]

The uninstall info is not exactly the same as the install info, is it?

What I normally do is simply find the registry key for the software (usually in HKCU) and just export the reg key.

Then when you re-install, simply import it back.

For CDex, isn't it freeware, so why bother with all this?

[xunil76]

no, i realize that the uninstall and install info is different.....but if i include *all* the registry info that was changed by the installation of the program, it seems to reason that if i did want to uninstall the program later, that i would be able to do so just as easily as if i had installed the program using the .exe file, correct?

the stuff i posted was just an example of what i was talking about, to illustrate the differences i was seeing between what the registry shows and what ExamDiff Pro shows.

when you install programs on a different partition like i do, you could easily just create a ghost image of the OS partition, which will contain all the registry entries needed to make the programs work again, but what happens to all the programs that are installed *after* that ghost file was created? they don't work anymore.

what i plan on doing is creating a ghost image of *only* the OS (with drivers/windows updates/etc. installed on the same partition) to quickly & easily "reinstall" the base OS, then make a .reg file for every program i install, which contains only the differences in the registry after that particular program was installed & its preferences set the way i like. that way, if i decide *not* to "install" a program the next time i reformat, i just simply don't import that program's .reg file into the registry.

[xunil76]

surely someone here knows?

[Yzöwl]

No, you shouldn't remove those backslashes.

They are added when the uninstall string, contains spaces. The string is executed as a command and will not work if there is spaces in the command string without quotes.

i.e "F:\folder\filename.exe" would show in the registry as F:\folder\filename.exe

and therefore execute this command

F:\folder\filename.exe

whereas

"F:\folder\file name.exe" would show in the registry as F:\folder\file name.exe and execute this at the command

F:\folder\file name.exe.

You would then get an error because the command you wanted should have been

"F:\folder\file name.exe"

due to the spaces

When the strings are added to the registry in a reg file there are some 'special characters', one of which is a quotation mark. So as not to confuse the registry you need to let it know first, you do this by saying \, meaning, I'm about to include a 'special character'.

Therefore

to tell it to use the command

"F:\folder\file name.exe"

the registry data would need to say "F:\folder name.exe" so your reg file would say

"\"F:\folder\file name.exe\""

Now that doesn't look like your string still, that's because the \ is a 'special character' too. So to also prevent confusion in your reg file you need to let it know you're adding a 'special character' again i.e. \

End result

"\"F:\\folder\\file name.exe\""

It's not an easy thing to explain, but I hope it helps.

PS

Just one thing to add before I leave. When you install your programs and monitor the registry, you should also monitor the %SystemDrive% too. Some of your apps will add dlls, ocxs etc. there too, without which the progs will also not work.

Now it is getting complicated isn't it...!

[xunil76]

yeah, i knew about monitoring the C:\ drive for changes also...WinDiff has an option for comparing directories

thanks for the reply, the thing with the slashes was really the only thing i was unsure about