Installation:

After downloading regxml.zip, unzip the file into an appropriate directory on the computer whose registry you want to deal with. There is no actual installation or setup utility, so this is the directory where you want this utility to stay.

Note that the zip file contains some DLLs. These can go in the same directory as regxml.exe, or they can go in another directory as long as that other directory is in your PATH.

Usage

When in doubt, run the utility with the /Help switch:

RegXML /RootKey:<registry key> /OutputFile:<filename>

This option will read a section of the registry on the current computer and write out an XML file representing that section of the registry. (See below for a description of the XML format used.) For example,

RegXML /RootKey:\\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\SomeApp /OutputFile:d:\SomeApp.xml

will read the registry key \\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\SomeApp and all subkeys and write out a representation of this part of the registry to an XML file stored in d:\SomeApp.xml. (Note that it will overwrite SomeApp.xml if it already exists.) Note: Currently this utility only supports registry values of types REG_SZ and REG_DWORD. This operation will fail if the supplied registry key or any of its subkeys contain values of other types.

RegXML /InputFile:<filename>

This option will read in an existing XML file, assuming that it represents a section of the registry (please see below for a description of the XML format used/assumed), and will add/modify the necessary keys and values in this computer's registry to match those in the file. Note that all changes are additive - in other words, if a key or value is missing from the XML file but exists in the registry, it will not be removed from the registry. If a value exists in both the registry and the XML file with different values, then the XML file will overwrite the registry with the new value. Note: Currently this utility only supports registry values of types REG_SZ and REG_DWORD. This operation will fail if the supplied XML indicates values of any other types.

RegXML /Help

Displays a list of all available switches, as shown above.

RegXML /Version

Displays the current version number of this utility, information about where to get the current version, contact information, and a brief license summary.

RegXML /License

Displays a brief license summary. For the full license agreement covering this utility, please read the GNU General Public License.

RegXML /Warranty

Displays a brief legal statement regarding how this utility does not provide any warranty as to its use. Again, for more information, please read the GNU General Public License.

XML Format

First, it is important to understand that although this utility is designed to deal with individual sections of the registry (not the whole thing), all XML is assumed to include enough parent-key context to be understandable without any additional information. For example, running this utility as

RegXML /RootKey:\\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\SomeApp /OutputFile:d:\SomeApp.xml

Note that although we specified that we only wanted \\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\SomeApp and its subkeys, the XML does include keys for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and for Software. This is just to give the XML file context. Note that we do not list any of the other many keys which of course were also under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE or under Software. Since RegXML is only additive, this will not remove any other keys under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE or under Software - it will just add the new data indicated by the XML file.

The format itself is relatively straigtforward. As mentioned above, RegXML only currently supports values of types REG_SZ and REG_DWORD, either on input or output. Any other values will cause the operation to fail. REG_DWORD values are stored in XML in decimal format.

If you have any further questions, please contact me at software@eshayne.com.