Doing reg imports for application settings

[drscouse]

Getting to the latter stages of finishing my UaCD... got a guery about applications and their settings...

Got most of my apps to install silently, however very few allow for any configuration via switches, or very limited. What I have decided to do is Instal the app and configure all user settings, then export the rigstry keys... to be imported when app installs from UaCD.

Should I be exporting ALL regkeys under Current User for the application folder.. including all sub folders.. or should I just export the keys where the user settings are held (which could turn out to be a lot and tricky to loacte).

Am I likely to encounter any problems if I do export the entire set of reg keys for a particular app, rather than just specific keys??

I know if I use keys from Current User and install them from cmdlines.txt, they will install under all user profiles... however, the apps have not yet been installed at this stage, so would any entries be overwritten by the app install, and settings defaulted??

I will prob experiment anyway.. and see what happens, but I though Id ask for a few thoughts.. or advice..

[benners]

What I usually do is install the app and run it once, goto the options or preferences and look through them, some of the options you prefer maybe the default for the app and will be created when the app closes after first run or created when the prefs dialog is opened. In my experience the app checks if the registry entries exist and if so will not overwrite but I have found Paint Shop Pro to be one that overwrites certain keys on first run, I found the setting to hide the learning centre pallette but everytime PSP opened on the first run it overwrote this entry.

I also register the app and find out which reg keys or files are altered using InCtrl5 and Regsnap, sometimes the keys created for registration are machine specific i.e TMPGEnc XPress and will have to be generated for each machine.

Some programs often put entries in the HKLM tree so you may want to check that as well. You can just export the full app tree from the registry and import it after the app has installed, and I don't forsee any problems but, I use XPlode and add the registry entries through the program. I like the keep the length to a minimum and mainly just add the keys for my user prefs again using Regsnap and checking which keys are altered when I set my preferences.

[nmX.Memnoch]

I know if I use keys from Current User and install them from cmdlines.txt, they will install under all user profiles... however, the apps have not yet been installed at this stage, so would any entries be overwritten by the app install, and settings defaulted??

One solution to avoid this problem is to install any applications that require HKCU tweaks from CMDLINES.TXT and then apply the reg tweaks right after they're installed. I use this for WMP10, Adobe Reader and one or two other applications. Anything that just applies HKLM settings can be installed from RunOnceEx (or whatever other method you decide to use) with it's HKLM settings applied after install. Some applications put settings in both locations.

Grabbing the entire registry key for a given piece of software shouldn't be a problem either (i.e. for Adobe Reader: HKCU\Software\Adobe Reader as well as HKLM\SOFTWARE\Adobe Reader). You don't need all of it for the settings but if you just want to be sure it shouldn't hurt to import the entire thing...as long as the install location is the same on every machine you use the CD for.

[drscouse]

Thanks.. to both of you

Its just my own disk, for my own pc... just a little project I got myself into to get a vetter understanding of how everything works... so I dont need to worry about using the cd on another pc...

Ive also managed to go as far as automatically moving the pagefile to another HD partiton.. so I dont think the disk would work too well on another pc All my apps are also installed from another partition, rather than from the cd, for speed.

Just when I think Im getting to the end.. more things crop up...

This particular query only came about after thinking that the last thing you want to do after creating an unattended disk, which auto installs your software, is having to then go through the software again to reconfigure it, the way you like it...

Theres no major apps, just some core utilities.. which seem to be quite localised in the registry, so it shouldnt require too much manipulation...

Thanks again, for clarification

[drscouse]

Ok.. so I think Ive decided to install apps, under my user profile... then apply the reg settings to the HKCU\Software... section of registy (shich is where they were originaly taken),,

Grabbing the entire registry key for a given piece of software shouldn't be a problem either (i.e. for Adobe Reader: HKCU\Software\Adobe Reader as well as HKLM\SOFTWARE\Adobe Reader). You don't need all of it for the settings but if you just want to be sure it shouldn't hurt to import the entire thing...as long as the install location is the same on every machine you use the CD

If I choose to do it this way, rather than from cmdlines.txt, how would I then apply HKCU\Software... to all future new account logons...??

Would I simply import the same file into the HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software (after modifying the key names), even though the software itself has no entry in this section... would this simply just duplicate my imported reg setting to any future accounts??

Thanks

[nmX.Memnoch]

Importing them during install using CMDLINES.TXT imports the settings to the Default User profile. That way it's automatically applied to every new user that logs onto the machine. It doesn't get any simpler than that.