How to determine which registry tweaks to use for apps configuration?

[SidB]

Hi,

I'm new to all this so I apologise in advance if my question is stupid.

I'd like to know how you find what registry tweaks you apply to configure your apps. The first time, I manually personnalize applications, but then how can i know which values I should take from registry to apply again later (at the next windows install), to automatically tweak my apps.

Thanks in advance for your advices

[ajua]

this is not a stupid question, not everyone knows about this.

lets get started, there are several ways for an app to store settings like config options and registration info:

1) Windows Registry

2) Application Data folder

3) *.ini files inside program folder

First, you have to configure your program the way you want. many programs now have a "export config settings". they export a .reg file and you just have to import it after you silent installed the program.

to import something to registry use this command

REGEDIT /S regfile.reg

NOTE: registry file exported by program can have other extensions like .KEY but the above commend works as well with this extension.

if you dont have the export option, you have to export manually the registry keys associated with the program. basically, you have to places in the registry to store data: Local Machine/Software (for all users) and Current User/Software (for current user only). 99% of the time the registry keys are inside a Company folder (example Adobe, Macromedia etc) under Software folder in the above mentioned Hives i nthe registry. Export both for each program.

In the case the program stores data in the registry and/or Application Data folder under Documents and Settings (could All users or User, or both) they again use a Company folder or Program Name folder. You have to make an SFX archive wither with winrar or 7-zip and then silent extract it after silent installing your program.

For ini files in the program installed folder, use again an SFX archive to compress it and then silent extract it after your silent setup. The config files can be .XML, .CFG files or other but programmers name them something like config.xml data.xml settings.ini etc so it will be easy to find them.

At last, hope this helps you.

There other ways to store info for a program but these are the most common ways to do it.

[SidB]

elajua, thanks very much for your great explanation. However I have some more questions.

Where is usually located the export config settings? I've searched in some apps (winamp, easy cd-da...) and couldn't find that.

Also about manual export from registry, I did have your solution in mind before but was hesitating between exporting the whole app folder from reg or only some lines of it (the problem then was to know which ones). So I'll stick with your recommendation but some concerns remains:

When I restore a previously exported folder made from an older version of the software, what happens if the new one has new options and thus new values: After importing the previous values, will the new remain default or could they get deleted?

What I fear is that the import cleans up and deletes all values while restoring those from the registry exported file and thus any new one get deleted. But maybe it doesn't work like that and that it only change the values and doesn't delete anything (making new one remain default)?

Thanks for your help

Edited June 21, 2006 by SidB

[ajua]

1) not every program has "the export settings" option. so dont expect to find that in most programs.

2) if you use a new version of a program, if the new version isnt a big upgrade chances are that the settings are the same. even though, when a new version comes out, i uninstall previous, install new one, and make a new reg file for the settings.

3) whem importing values to registry if a key exists (even with a different value) it will be overwritten, meaning that the old values will be written. so i recommend you to uninstall previous and install new one to create another reg file with the new settings that may apppear.

note: so far, the only problem when using reg files in different computer are the application paths: if a reg file contains lets say c:\ajua and the computer you are applying the reg file to doesnt have that folder maybe the program wont work well or wont work at all. so be careful with program and file paths if you plan to use reg files in different pc's.

[SidB]

Thanks for all your help elajua. I now know enough to do what I was looking for

Tks

[ajua]

sure. no problem. i help whenever i can.