Copyright: (C) 1995 -- Steven J. Hoek Software Development


Registry Search & Replace Help Contents

For an overview of what Registry Search & Replace can do for you, please see the summary section.

For information about its author, please see the information section.

Click in on any of the dialog controls below to receive help on that control:


Summary

Registry Search & Replace is a tool written to simplify maintenance of the Windows NT 3.5 registration databases.  Occasionally, experienced users desire to make a change to their system that would require that the registry be updated to reflect those changes.  No automated way is provided by the Registry Editor included with the operating system to perform the changes.  With Registry Search & Replace, this task is automated, safe, and thorough.  For example, if you initially installed Windows NT 3.5 in the suggested default directory of C:\WINNT35, and now wanted to move it to C:\OS\NT, you previously would have had to search manually for all occurrences of the former string in each registry key.  Now, Registry Search & Replace can do the work for you!  Some of the key features of this program are:

•	Easily find any textual data in the registry (ie: key values of type REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ).

•	Optionally replace search criteria with a specified replacement string.

•	Optionally log search and replace operations to a disk-based text file.  Common dialogs help you specify the file.

•	Optionally show matches using a graphical hierarchy view similar to the Registry Editor.

•	Search for whole words, or partial fragments.  When searching for partials, all occurrences of the string within the data is replaced when in replace mode.

•	Search for strings with or without case sensitivity.

•	Search in any of the operating system's key trees (ie: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, HKEY_USERS) or their aliases (ie: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, HKEY_CURRENT_USER).

•	Progress dialog shows you what is being searched and how much of the search is complete.


Search Criteria Edit Control

The search criteria edit control allows you to specify up to 50 characters of text to search the registry for.  Any valid characters for the REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ data types are allowed.


Replace Mode Check Box

The replace mode check box allows the user to activate the replace functionality of Registry Search & Replace.  When this box is checked, an the replace criteria edit control will become visible.


Replace Criteria Edit Control

The replace criteria edit control is where you can specify up to 50 characters of data to replace matches to the data in the search criteria edit control with.  When the whole words check box is NOT checked, the search criteria is replaced with the replace criteria for every occurrence in the data for a given key value.  This control is only visible when the replace mode check box is checked.


Log Mode Check Box

The log mode check box allows the user to activate the logging functionality of Registry Search & Replace.  When this box is checked, an the log file edit control and log file browse button both will become visible.


Log File Edit Control

The log file edit control is where the user can specify the file to be used for disk-file logging of search matches and other information related to a search operation.  The user can use the log file browse button to use the Windows common file dialogs to specify the file.  This control is only visible when the log mode check box is checked.


Log File Browse Button

The log file browse button allows the user to select a log file via a Windows common file dialog.  The selected pathname will be placed in the log file edit control upon return from the common dialog.  This control is only visible when the log mode check box is checked.


Show Matches Check Box

The show matches check box indicates that Registry Search & Replace should put up the registry tree dialog when a match is found.  This box is checked by default.  Note that when this box is NOT checked, and the program is in replace mode, no replace confirmation will be requested.


Whole Words Check Box

The whole words check box allows the user to specify that the program should require that the search criteria be the only data for a given value in order for it to be considered a match.  When this box is NOT checked, and the program is in replace mode, all occurrences of the search criteria in a key value's data is replaced.


Case Sensitive Check Box

The case sensitive check box allows the user to further customize their search to only indicate a match when the search criteria matches case with the data as well.


Local Machine Registry Key Check Box

The local machine registry key check box indicates that searching should occur in the registry's HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE primary key.  The Windows NT registry has 2 primary keys, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and HKEY_USERS.  To simplify administration, the Registry Editor as well as this program create aliases of an important subkey in each tree, HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and HKEY_CURRENT_USER respectively.


Classes Root Registry Key Check Box
The classes root registry key check box indicates that searching should occur in the registry's HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT key, which is an alias of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Classes.  The Windows NT registry has 2 primary keys, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and HKEY_USERS.  To simplify administration, the Registry Editor as well as this program create aliases of an important subkey in each tree, HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and HKEY_CURRENT_USER respectively.


Users Registry Key Check Box
The users registry key check box indicates that searching should occur in the registry's HKEY_USERS primary key.  The Windows NT registry has 2 primary keys, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and HKEY_USERS.  To simplify administration, the Registry Editor as well as this program create aliases of an important subkey in each tree, HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and HKEY_CURRENT_USER respectively.


Current User Registry Key Check Box
The current user registry key check box indicates that searching should occur in the registry's HKEY_CURRENT_USER key, which is an alias of HKEY_USERS\<your user security ID>.  The Windows NT registry has 2 primary keys, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and HKEY_USERS.  To simplify administration, the Registry Editor as well as this program create aliases of an important subkey in each tree, HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and HKEY_CURRENT_USER respectively.


Executing the Search & Replace

The OK button is only active when conditions are valid to begin the specified type of search and replace (ie: a search criteria is given; if replace mode is on, valid replace criteria is given; if logging mode is on, a valid log pathname is given; at least 1 registry key is specified to search).  When the search begins, the user is presented with the following modeless dialog:

This dialog is showing:

•	The current registry key path being searched.

•	The progress of the search.

•	Totals for number of matches and number replaced.

•	An Abort button allowing the user to abort the search.

If a match is found, the following modal dialog is shown (in this case, the program is in replace mode):

This dialog is showing:

•	A graphical representation of the path to the key value's data that caused the match.

•	In replace mode, a Replace button allowing the user to confirm the replace operation for this match.

•	In replace mode, a Skip button allowing the user to decline the replace operation for this match.

If the program is not in replace mode, the latter two features distill to just an OK button, which allows the user to confirm the existence of a match.

When the search has completed, or if it is aborted, a summary message box appears.  An example follows:

In this example, the program was in replace mode, but the user did not indicate to replace on each match.


Registry Editor Button

The Registry Editor button allows the user to run the standard Windows component REGEDT32.EXE, which should be in your WINNT35\SYSTEM32 directory.  Please see the Microsoft documentation for help operating the registry editor.


Exit Button

The exit button simply allows the user to exit the program.


Help Button

The help button is what you probably used to begin reading this help file!  The F1 key will also bring help on the dialog control that currently has the focus.


"Donation-ware" Information

"Donation-ware" is a term I've seen used by a few shareware and freeware authors, and I think it applies to Registry Search & Replace.  If you find yourself using this program frequently and like the job it does, I would encourage you to donate $10.00 to its author.  For this donation, you will receive the latest version of the program, an interested ear for feature suggestions, and a potential for more utilities like this one to make your life with Windows easier.  You can contact the author via any of the means listed below.  Thank you very much!

This program is Copyright (C) 1995 Steven J. Hoek Software Development -- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Steven J. Hoek Software Development

2700 Walnut Hills Court S.E.

Grand Rapids, MI  49512

616-281-1307

CIS: 	72674,326

Internet:	72674.326@compuserve.com

STEVE_HOEK@delphi.com