Editing XP registry from Windows 7
I would like to export a key from the XP registry in Win 7. Preferably without having to reboot for every instance this needs to be done. Is there some program I can do this with? Regedit can't. Load hive is greyed out.
August 7th, 2010 5:46pm

On Sat, 7 Aug 2010 14:46:30 +0000, bipbop wrote: I would like to export a key from the XP registry in Win 7. Preferably without having to reboot for every instance this needs to be done. Is there some program I can do this with? Regedit can't. Load hive is greyed out. Exactly what do you mean by "the XP registry"? Ken Blake
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August 7th, 2010 9:45pm

Thank you for your reply. The registry in Windows XP, where settings are stored. I know it can be done with Linux Live-CDs. Bart-PE, etc. I'd like to do it from Windows 7, without having to reboot, as this is an operation I'll need to do more than once, and would prefer not to have to reboot for each instance.
August 7th, 2010 11:05pm

On Sat, 7 Aug 2010 20:05:53 +0000, bipbop wrote: Thank you for your reply. The registry in Windows XP, where settings are stored. I know it can be done with Linux Live-CDs. Bart-PE, etc. I'd like to do it_from_Windows 7, without having to reboot, as this is an operation I'll need to do more than once, and would prefer not to have to reboot for each instance. If you are running Windows 7, there is no Windows XP Registry. Sorry, I still don't understand what you are asking about. The only thing I can remotely think of that you might mean is that you are dual booting Windows 7 and XP and you want to get to the Windows XP registry from Windows XP. But you haven't said anything like that. If that's what you mean, please clarify it. Ken Blake
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August 7th, 2010 11:51pm

Looking back at what I've written, I can see that I've been unclear. Sorry about that. I do have a XP installation on another disk on my system. I'd like to get to the Windows XP registry from Windows 7. I've searched extensively on the web, but all I can find are solutions that requires rebooting, which in my case defeats the purpose. In one or two cases, I could of course boot into XP to look at the registry, and export settings I need. But above that number, it gets frustrating. Therefore I'm looking for a way to get to XP's registry from Windoes 7.
August 8th, 2010 12:43am

On Sat, 7 Aug 2010 21:43:42 +0000, bipbop wrote: Looking back at what I've written, I can see that I've been unclear. Sorry about that. OK, so my guess was right. Thanks for the clarification. I do have a XP installation on another disk on my system. I'd like to get to the Windows XP registry from Windows 7. I've searched extensively on the web, but all I can find are solutions that requires rebooting, which in my case defeats the purpose. In one or two cases, I could of course boot into XP to look at the registry, and export settings I need. But above that number, it gets frustrating. Therefore I'm looking for a way to get to XP's registry from Windoes 7. You can't do it with Regedit, but there might be a third-party tool that will do what you want. Here's one that sounds like it might work for you: http://registrytool.com/ But bear in mind that I've never used it and can't recommend it. If that doesn't work for you, try a web search to see if you can find another tool that will. Ken Blake
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August 8th, 2010 1:15am

Registry Tool looks promising, but it seems to have serious problems running on Windows 7 x64. I have sent them a mail describing the problems. Thanks!
August 8th, 2010 1:54am

It a nuisance with disparate versions of Windows. So I use Virtual PC and I make a virtual disk of an old XP setup and I can then do what I want to it. Vote if answered or helpful, I am running for Office (joke)! IT/Developer, Windows/Linux/Mainframe I also am a true vegan and I am very good with economics and I used to play chess at 2400++ I have lots of papers on my site for power supplies and video card problems, see the resources section
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August 8th, 2010 4:03am

Hello, Why does Regedit not work? It should work to load a XP registry. normally the option to load hive is greyed out when the focus ( highlight in Regedit) is not on HKEY_LOCAL-MACHINE or HKEY_USERS. Regedit may fail to open a file but it will attempt to open the file and error out if itcannot, but the option to load a hive is dependant on where the focus is when you are pointing to the hive you want to load. I would try changing the highlighted key in regedit to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and they attempt to load the hive Thanks, Darrell Gorter This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. Volume Activation documentation on TechNet http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd197314.aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd996588.aspx VAMT - Volume Activation Management Tool - Download link http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ec7156d2-2864-49ee-bfcb-777b898ad582&displaylang=en
August 8th, 2010 4:48am

Regedit seems to be hard coded to the system disk, so that I use Virtual PC and simply boot the image. Vote if answered or helpful, I am running for Office (joke)! IT/Developer, Windows/Linux/Mainframe I also am a true vegan and I am very good with economics and I used to play chess at 2400++ I have lots of papers on my site for power supplies and video card problems, see the resources section
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August 8th, 2010 4:51am

Hello Vegan Fanatic, I can load registry hives from other drives that are not the system disk using regedit What makes you think that regedit is hard coded to the system diskThanks, Darrell Gorter This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. Volume Activation documentation on TechNet http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd197314.aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd996588.aspx VAMT - Volume Activation Management Tool - Download link http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ec7156d2-2864-49ee-bfcb-777b898ad582&displaylang=en
August 8th, 2010 5:08am

I have tried many time. Yesterday I had a machine in the shop to fix and it was badly thrashed by malware. I could not read the registry or anything. After cleaning the disk from malware, I was able to get the machine to boot, and it was no longer activated. That is how sever most machines are when they come to me for service. 4 hours later it was back up and I was able to clean it up. sfc showed a system riddled with problems Vote if answered or helpful, I am running for Office (joke)! IT/Developer, Windows/Linux/Mainframe I also am a true vegan and I am very good with economics and I used to play chess at 2400++ I have lots of papers on my site for power supplies and video card problems, see the resources section
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August 8th, 2010 5:36am

normally the option to load hive is greyed out when the focus ( highlight in Regedit) is not on HKEY_LOCAL-MACHINE or HKEY_USERS. Regedit may fail to open a file but it will attempt to open the file and error out if itcannot, but the option to load a hive is dependant on where the focus is when you are pointing to the hive you want to load. I would try changing the highlighted key in regedit to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and they attempt to load the hive You are correct. When i set focus to HKEY_LOCAL-MACHINE, load hive is not greyed out anymore. I assume loading the hive will not screw up Windows 7's registry, as long as I do an unload hive?
August 8th, 2010 5:17pm

The last thing I would do is try to import a malware infested hive. In my shop I usually get the hard cases that retailers send to me. Vote if answered or helpful, I am running for Office (joke)! IT/Developer, Windows/Linux/Mainframe I also am a true vegan and I am very good with economics and I used to play chess at 2400++ I have lots of papers on my site for power supplies and video card problems, see the resources section
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August 8th, 2010 5:19pm

It a nuisance with disparate versions of Windows. So I use Virtual PC and I make a virtual disk of an old XP setup and I can then do what I want to it. I considered that, but I found out I don't have enough disk space for the image. But it's an option. For now, I think Darrell Gorter's solution is the best, as long as it doesn't screw up Win 7's registry.
August 8th, 2010 5:36pm

The last thing I would do is try to import a malware infested hive. In my shop I usually get the hard cases that retailers send to me. I have no malware on my XP disk, but does what you say mean that if I import a hive from XP into regedit, it will become a part of Windows 7's registry?
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August 8th, 2010 5:40pm

It will integrate it if you import it. My advise, get a much bigger disk Vote if answered or helpful, I am running for Office (joke)! IT/Developer, Windows/Linux/Mainframe I also am a true vegan and I am very good with economics and I used to play chess at 2400++ I have lots of papers on my site for power supplies and video card problems, see the resources section
August 8th, 2010 5:43pm

It will integrate it if you import it. My advise, get a much bigger disk OK. Thank you.
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August 8th, 2010 6:48pm

If you're running Win 7 64-bit and you import registry keys from XP 32-bit, you could really mess up you system depending on exactly what you are importing. Any references to System32 in XP would point to the wrong places in Win 7 64-bit. So, if you really think you want to take that chance, then make sure you make a complete back-up of your Win 7 registry before you make any changes!Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.
August 8th, 2010 7:02pm

If you're running Win 7 64-bit and you import registry keys from XP 32-bit, you could really mess up you system depending on exactly what you are importing. Any references to System32 in XP would point to the wrong places in Win 7 64-bit. So, if you really think you want to take that chance, then make sure you make a complete back-up of your Win 7 registry before you make any changes! The only thing I want, is to be able to extract settings for some apps from my old XP installation. I don't want to merge the XP registry with Win 7's. I was under the impression that I could perhaps use regedit to load a hive, then unload it after I had exported some keys. Apparently I was wrong, so regedit is out of the question. Registry Tool, as suggested by Ken Blake, seems to be the ideal app for this, but doesn't work under x64. Perhaps it's only compatible with 32bit Windows, I don't know. But I've sent them a mail. I guess I'll have to buy another disk and make a virtual machine from the XP disk, as suggested by Vegan Fanatic, and run it in Virtual PC.
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August 8th, 2010 8:38pm

What do you need from the disk? Vote if answered or helpful, I am running for Office (joke)! IT/Developer, Windows/Linux/Mainframe I also am a true vegan and I am very good with economics and I used to play chess at 2400++ I have lots of papers on my site for power supplies and video card problems, see the resources section
August 8th, 2010 8:39pm

What do you need from the disk? Only some app preferences. There are huge video files there. But I guess there's no way to get at the registry without making a vm out of the whole disk. And for that, I need another empty disk. SysInternal's Disk2vhd seems like a capable utility to make a vm.
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August 8th, 2010 8:58pm

You will have to install everything fresh. No way to easy migrate anything. I have in house tools to extract CD keys etc. if you need them Vote if answered or helpful, I am running for Office (joke)! IT/Developer, Windows/Linux/Mainframe I also am a true vegan and I am very good with economics and I used to play chess at 2400++ I have lots of papers on my site for power supplies and video card problems, see the resources section
August 8th, 2010 9:01pm

You will have to install everything fresh. No way to easy migrate anything. I have in house tools to extract CD keys etc. if you need them I suppose you are correct. For some apps, like Putty, settings can be extracted from the registry. But that may be the exception, rather than the rule. Thanks for the offer for the tools. I have all commercial apps and their license keys easily available. I want to thank everyone who participated in this thread, with your kind advice. It's very much appreciated!
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August 8th, 2010 9:15pm

Hello bibop, I do not understand why regedit does not work. I use regedit frequently to load hives from other installations\volumes or when looking at registries that are sent to me, so I am not clear why this appears to not be working for you.Thanks, Darrell Gorter This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. Volume Activation documentation on TechNet http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd197314.aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd996588.aspx VAMT - Volume Activation Management Tool - Download link http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ec7156d2-2864-49ee-bfcb-777b898ad582&displaylang=en
August 9th, 2010 9:16pm

I do not understand why regedit does not work. I use regedit frequently to load hives from other installations\volumes or when looking at registries that are sent to me, so I am not clear why this appears to not be working for you. Apparently I can load the hive from XP into regedit. But I've been adviced not to do so, as it will then be merged with Win 7's registry. And that is definitely something I don't want to happen. Are you saying that's not the case, and I can do it without it becoming merged with Win 7's registry?
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August 9th, 2010 9:53pm

Hello bipbop, If you are loading registry hives, they will not be merged into the Windows 7 Registry. When you use Load hive, it simply mounts the registry under a different name. Once you make the changes, you need to unmount the hive or it will load every time you use regedit. It's not merged in this case, it's simply mounted, until you choose to unload hive. If you are double-clicking on *.reg files, those will be merged into the existing registry.Thanks, Darrell Gorter This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. Volume Activation documentation on TechNet http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd197314.aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd996588.aspx VAMT - Volume Activation Management Tool - Download link http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ec7156d2-2864-49ee-bfcb-777b898ad582&displaylang=en
August 9th, 2010 11:09pm

Darrel, Thanks for that info. I will give it a try then ! Much appreciated. I'm happy to report that it worked like a charm ! :-D
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August 9th, 2010 11:39pm

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