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| RegScanner v2.75 - find / search in the Registry of Windows
Copyright (c) 2004 - 2024 Nir Sofer
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Description
RegScanner is a small utility that allows you to scan the Registry, find the desired Registry values
that match to the specified search criteria, and display them in one list.
After finding the Registry values, you can easily jump to the right value in RegEdit, simply by
double-clicking the desired Registry item.
You can also export the found Registry values into a .reg file that can be used in RegEdit.
Search for other utilities in NirSoft
Advantages over RegEdit find of Windows
- RegScanner utility display the entire search result at once, so you don't have to press F3 in order to find the next value.
- In addition to the standard string search (Like in RegEdit), RegScanner can also find Registry values by data length, value type (REG_SZ, REG_DWORD, and so on), and by modified date of the key.
- RegScanner can find a unicode string located inside a binary value.
- RegScanner allows you to make a case sensitive search.
- While scanning the Registry, RegScanner display the current scanned Registry key, as opposed to RegEdit, that simply
display a boring "Searching the registry" dialog-box.
System Requirements
This utility works in any version of Windows, from Windows XP to Windows 11.
A separated download for x64 systems is also available.
Versions History
- Version 2.75:
- Added 'Automatically skip a corrupted recursive key' option. If RegScanner crashes while scanning the Registry on your system, try to turn on this option.
- Version 2.71:
- Added 'Refresh' option (F5), which searches the Registry again according to the last search options.
- Version 2.70:
- Added 'Subkey Depth' option (The default is Infinite).
- Version 2.65:
- Added new option: 'Open In RegEdit Without Elevation', which allows you to open the selected Registry key in RegEdit without Administrator privileges.
- Fixed bug: RegScanner failed to export to .reg file properly when scanning the 64-bit Registry using the 32-bit version of RegScanner.
- 'Open In RegEdit' option - Fixed to open the 64-bit version of RegEdit when scanning the 64-bit Registry using the 32-bit version of RegScanner.
- Version 2.61:
- Added option to choose another font (name and size) to display in the main window (Under the View menu).
- Version 2.60:
- Added option to filter the search by the owner of the Registry key.
You can choose to search only Registry key with specific owners, or to exclude specific owners from the search.
You can specify multiple Registry key owners as comma-delimited list, for example: SYSTEM, TrustedInstaller
- Version 2.55:
- Added 'Key Owner' column, which displays the owner name of the Registry key.
- Fixed to export properly REG_NONE values.
- Version 2.51:
- Fixed bug: RegScanner saved the settings in the Registry instead of .cfg file.
- Fixed RegScanner to use the .cfg file in the current directory if the folder is not specfied in the /cfg command-line option.
- Version 2.50:
- Added new search option: 'Registry item contains remote network path'. When you select this option, RegScanner searches and displays any
string that looks like a path to remote computer on your network, for example: \\192.168.0.10\c$ , Z:\Windows (Only if Z: is remote network drive).
- This feature can be useful if your system freezes when your network is disconnected and you want to find references to remote computers
in the Registry in order to try to fix the problem.
- Version 2.47:
- Fixed the 'Automatically start remote Registry service' option to start the service on the remote computer when it's disabled.
- Version 2.46:
- Added /RunAsSystem command-line option for running RegScanner as SYSTEM user from command line.
- Added /RunAsAdmin command-line option for running RegScanner as Administrator (elevation) from command line.
- Version 2.45:
- Added 'Run As System' option (Under the help menu), which allows you to easily run RegScanner as system user in order to search Registry hives accessible only with system user (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SAM and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Security ).
- Version 2.40:
- Added 'Copy As .Reg File Format' option (Ctrl+R)
- Added /sreg command-line option.
- Version 2.36:
- Added option to start the remote Registry service when scanning the Registry of remote machine.
- Version 2.35:
- Added option to scan the 32-bit or 64-bit view of the Regsitry.
- By default (When you don't choose the 32-bit or 64-bit option) - the 32-bit version of RegScanner scans the 32-bit Registry and
the 64-bit version of RegScanner scans the 64-bit Registry.
- Version 2.31:
- Fixed issue (RegScanner 32-bit without elevation): When scanning the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\VirtualStore\Machine\SOFTWARE key, RegScanner displayed the keys stored under the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software key. This problem was caused by a bug in Registry API of Windows, and a workaround was added to RegScanner so
the Registry scan will work properly with this bug.
- Version 2.30:
- Added option to search Registry keys modified in the last xx seconds/minutes/hours/days.
- Added 'Today' button to set the time range fields for today.
- Version 2.26:
- Fixed bug: 'Exact Match' search didn't work properly for REG_SZ data.
- Version 2.25:
- Added option to scan the Registry from command-line and export he result to csv/tab-delimited/html file.
- Version 2.20:
- Added 'Export Value To Binary File' option.
- Fixed the status bar display during scanning to be smoother and without flickering.
- Version 2.17:
- Added 'New RegScanner Instance' under the File menu, for opening a new window of RegScanner.
- Version 2.16
- Fixed bug: When exporting value names with '\' character, RegScanner exported it as one '\' character instead of 2 '\' characters.
- Version 2.15
- You can now specify multiple base keys to scan, delimited by comma. (For example: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion, HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion )
Be aware that if the base key you want to scan contains a comma character, you have enclose the key with quotes (For example: "HKLM\Software\My,Key")
- Version 2.10
- The date/time values are now saved to the config file.
- Added 'Save Settings' button for saving the settings without scan.
- Fixed the edit mode in date/time controls.
- Version 2.07
- Added 'Run As Administrator' option (Ctrl+F11), which allows you to easily run RegScanner as administrator on Windows Vista/7/8/2008.
- Version 2.06
- RegScanner now remembers the last position of the scan options window.
- Fixed bug: RegScanner failed to remember the last size/position of the main window if it was not located in the primary monitor.
- Version 2.05
- Fixed bug: RegScanner crashed when searching values using wildcard.
- Version 2.04
- Fixed to display date/time values according to daylight saving time settings.
- Version 2.03
- Added 'Clear Recent Files List' option to the 'Recent Config Files' menu.
- Version 2.02
- The find string is now displayed in the title bar of the main window.
- Version 2.01
- When running RegScanner on Windows Vista/7/8/2008 without 'Run As Administrator', it now allows you to
use the 'Open In RegEdit' feature (Elevation window will appear when using the 'Open In RegEdit' option).
- Version 2.00
- Added option to search Registry items by wildcards. (For example: *num* , abc????)
- Version 1.96
- RegScanner now remembers the last 20 find strings you used and allows you to easily choose them again from a combo-box.
- Fixed the flickering occurred while scrolling the Registry items.
- Version 1.95
- Fixed the export and delete features to work properly on the Registry of remote computer.
- Fixed issue: The properties and the other windows opened in the wrong monitor, on multi-monitors system.
- Version 1.90
- Added 'Recent Config Files' menu, which allows you to easily open the last 10 configuration files that you used.
- Version 1.85
- Added option to exclude one or more keys from the Registry scanning. You can specify the Registry keys to exclude as comma-delimited list.
By using this feature you can skip some major Registry keys (like HKLM\Software\Classes) to make the search much faster.
- Version 1.83
- The status bar now displays the total data size of selected Registry items in KB/MB.
- Version 1.82
- Added the 'Delete Selected Keys/Values' option into the context menu, as well as
this options is now disabled if there is no any selected Registry item.
- Version 1.81
- Fixed problem: On Windows 7/Vista, RegScanner entered into a recursive scan of VirtualStore key
, something like HKCR\VirtualStore\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\VirtualStore\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\VirtualStore...
- Version 1.80
- Added 'Delete Selected Keys/Values' option. (See Below)
- Version 1.77
- Fixed bug: When searching a key in 'Exact Match' mode, RegScanner compared the search string with the full key path, and thus
it never found the key.
- Version 1.76
- Export Selected Items - String values are now exported as strings and DWord values are now exported as DWords. (In previous versions they exported as binary)
- Fixed bug: When using 'Export Selected Items' more than once, the first key was missed.
- Version 1.75
- New option: Show found items during the scan process
- Version 1.70
- Added 2 regular expression options
- Version 1.65
- Fixed bug in x64 version: RegScanner returned wrong search results.
- Version 1.64
- Fixed bug: The main window lost the focus when the user switched to another application and then returned back to RegScanner.
- Version 1.63:
- Added support for saving as comma-delimited file.
- Version 1.62:
- Fixed bug: RegScanner displayed a crash window immediately after running it.
- Version 1.61:
- Fixed bug: RegScanner remained in memory if you closed the main window during the Registry scan.
- Version 1.60:
- Fixed bug: opening HKLM in RegEdit failed if there was no '\' character.
- New option: 'Open Clipboard Text In RegEdit' - Allows you to open RegEdit
with the key that is currently in the clipboard.
- New command-line option: /clipregedit
- Version 1.56:
- Removed the text length limit from the 'Base Key' combo-box
- Version 1.55:
- Added 'Registry item contains any value' in the matching combo-box.
This option replace the 'Load all keys...' option in the previous versions.
- Added 'Add only keys' option - allows you to scan only the Registry keys (without values).
- Added a separated download for x64.
- Version 1.51:
- Fixed RegEdit open problem with HKEY_USERS key.
- Version 1.50:
- New option: Support Reg: Links - Allows you to use reg: links for opening Registry keys in RegEdit. For example: reg:HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
- New command-line option: /regedit
- New option: Create Delete .Reg File - Creates a .reg file that deletes all selected Registry values.
- Version 1.40:
- New search option: Registry item contains the specified DWORD value.
- New search option: Registry item contains the specfied binary value
- New option: Scan a remote computer.
- New option: Copy the selected key to the clipbard (Ctrl+K).
- As opposed to previous versions that only scanned the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
and HKEY_CURRENT_USER keys, now you can also choose to search under
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, HKEY_USERS, and HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG.
- Version 1.30:
- New search option: search by value type.
- New option: Save/load RegScanner configuration.
- A tooltip is displayed when a string in a column is longer than the column length.
- The configuration of RegScanner utility is now saved into a file (regscanner.cfg - located in the same folder of the
executable file) instead of saving it to the Registry.
(If from some reason, you still want that RegScanner utility will save the configuration data into the Registry,
run it with /usereg parameter)
- Version 1.20:
- New option: Export selected items to a .reg file that you can use in RegEdit.
- New column: Data Length.
- New search option: search by data length.
- Dramatically reduced memory footprint during search. (Fixed bug from previous versions)
- Version 1.10:
- New column: Key Modified Time (Only for Windows NT/2000/XP)
- New search option: by key modified time (Only for Windows NT/2000/XP)
- New search option: Add entry for each found key (Only when you select to search by key name)
- New search option: Search for Unicode strings in binary values.
- Added support for Windows XP visual styles.
- Version 1.00: First Release.
License
This utility is released as freeware.
You are allowed to freely distribute this utility via floppy disk, CD-ROM,
Internet, or in any other way, as long as you don't charge anything for this.
If you distribute this utility, you must include all files in
the distribution package, without any modification !
Disclaimer
The software is provided "AS IS" without any warranty, either expressed or implied,
including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness
for a particular purpose. The author will not be liable for any special, incidental,
consequential or indirect damages due to loss of data or any other reason.
Using RegScanner
RegScanner is a standalone executable, and it doesn't require any installation process or
additional DLLs. In order to start using it, just run the executbale file - regscanner.exe
After running RegScanner, you should select the desired scan/search options, and click OK to start the scan.
Delete Selected Keys/Values
The delete feature was added in version 1.80 after many requests from RegScanner users.
This feature allows you to easily delete unwanted Registry keys and values that you found in the search process.
However, in order to decrease the chance of damage from accidental delete action, this feature works as follows:
- Before any delete action, RegScanner will ask you if you want to delete, and the default answer is No.
- When you delete a value item, only the value is deleted, when you delete a key, the entire key is deleted.
- A key won't be deleted if it has one or more subkeys.
- For every delete, the delete values/keys are added into a .bak file located in the folder of RegScanner.exe
If RegScanner fails to create the .bak file, it won't delete the selected items.
Tips for using RegScanner
- If you want to view all Registry values under a specific key, choose 'Registry item contains any value' in the matching combo-box,
uncheck the 'Scan the following base keys', and in the Base Key combo-box type the desired key (For example: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer)
- If you want to view all Registry values that contains large amount of data,
uncheck the 'Add entry for each found key' option, choose 'Registry item contains any value' in the matching combo-box, choose the 'Display only data with the following lenth range', and
type the data length range that you want to find, for example: from 1000 bytes to 100000 bytes.
- If you want to view the list of all Registry keys that have been modified in the last few hours or days,
check the 'Add entry for each found key' and 'Add only keys' options, choose 'Registry item contains any value' in the matching combo-box,
choose the 'Display only keys that their modified time is within the following range' option, and then
select the modified date/time range that you want to view.
Searching DWORD/Binary values
Starting from version 1.40, you can search DWORD/Binary values.
In order to specify a DWORD value to search, you can type (In the Find string text-box) a decimal value (for example: 255) or
an hexadecimal value (for example: 0xff).
In order to specify a binary value that you want to search, type (In the Find string text-box)
a sequence of hexadecimal bytes, with or without spaces between them.
For example:
013fc7a127cc4a
01 3f c7 a1 27 cc 4a
Searching the Registry in a remote computer
Starting from version 1.40, you can search the Registry in a remote computer on your network.
In order to do that, you should login to the remote computer with admin user.
Also, be aware that searching the Registry in a remote computer might be quite slow.
For more information about connecting to the Registry of a remote computer, read this:
How to connect a remote Windows 7/Vista/XP computer with NirSoft utilities.
Using reg: Links
Starting from version v1.50, RegScanner allows you to use reg: URL as a link to the Registry key in RegEdit editor.
For Example:
Clicking the link below will open RegEdit with the specified Registry key:
reg:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
You can also type the same reg: string in the address bar of Internet Explorer or in the Run dialog-box of Windows.
In order to enable/disable this feature, go to the File menu of RegScanner utility, and choose the 'Support Reg: Links' option.
Be aware that changing this option only affects the current logged on user.
Using the /regedit and /clipregedit Command-Line Options
Starting from version 1.50, you can use RegScanner.exe utility to open the desired key in RegEdit,
by using the /regedit command-line option.
For example:
RegScanner.exe /regedit "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion"
Starting from version 1.60, you can also use the /clipregedit command-line option if you want to open
a key that you copied into the clipboard.
Notice about transition effects
If you want that RegEdit will be opened as fast as possible with the right Registry value,
you should disable the 'transition effects' on your system. (On Windows 2000, go to the
'Display Properties' window, select the 'Effects' tab, and uncheck the 'Use transition effects...' option.
Command-Line Options
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/cfg <Filename>
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Start RegScanner with the specified config file.
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/sreg <Filename>
| Scan the Registry and export the result into .reg file.
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/stext <Filename>
| Scan the Registry and export the result into a simple text file.
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/stab <Filename>
| Scan the Registry and export the result into a tab-delimited text file.
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/scomma <Filename>
| Scan the Registry and export the result into a comma-delimited text file (csv).
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/stabular <Filename>
| Scan the Registry and export the result into a tabular text file.
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/shtml <Filename>
| Scan the Registry and export the result into HTML file (Horizontal).
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/sverhtml <Filename>
| Scan the Registry and export the result into HTML file (Vertical).
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/sxml <Filename>
| Scan the Registry and export the result into XML file.
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/RunAsAdmin
| Run the RegScanner tool as Administrator (elevation)
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/RunAsSystem
| Run the RegScanner tool as SYSTEM user.
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Translating RegScanner to other languages
In order to translate RegScanner to other language, follow the instructions below:
- Run RegScanner with /savelangfile parameter:
regscanner.exe /savelangfile
A file named regscanner_lng.ini will be created in the folder of RegScanner utility.
- Open the created language file in Notepad or in any other text editor.
- Translate all string entries to the desired language.
Optionally, you can also add your name and/or a link to your Web site.
(TranslatorName and TranslatorURL values) If you add this information, it'll be
used in the 'About' window.
- After you finish the translation, Run RegScanner, and all translated
strings will be loaded from the language file.
If you want to run RegScanner without the translation, simply rename the language file, or move
it to another folder.
Feedback
If you have any problem, suggestion, comment, or you found a bug in my utility,
you can send a message to nirsofer@yahoo.com
RegScanner is also available in other languages. In order to change the language of
RegScanner, download the appropriate language zip file, extract the 'regscanner_lng.ini',
and put it in the same folder that you Installed RegScanner utility.
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