4.4 Connecting to Other Machines' Registries

RegEdit allows you to connect to the Registry of any Windows NT or 2000 machine on your network. Of course, there are two caveats: you must have permission to do so, and the remote machine must be configured to allow remote Registry access. In particular, Windows 2000 machines must have the Remote Registry Access service installed and running (the same is true for Windows 9x machines, by the way).

From within RegEdit, you connect to other machines with the Registry Connect Network Registry...command. You then see a small dialog box that prompts you for a computer name to attach to. This dialog box also contains a Browse button; clicking it displays a network browser window (similar to the one in Windows Explorer) that allows you to poke around your LAN to find the machine you want to connect to. Once you've identified the machine you want to reach, RegEdit opens its Registry and displays its root keys in the key pane. Your local machine's root keys are under the My Computer icon; other machines' keys appear under folder icons with their names, as shown in Figure 4.2.

Figure 4.2. Remote Registries and local Registries

While you're connected to a remote computer's Registry, you can browse keys subject to whatever permission the remote Registry's owner has imposed. Depending on those same permissions, you may be able to modify, create, or remove keys; before doing so, of course, you should make sure that you have both a good backup of the target machine and permission from its owner.

Because RegEdit doesn't dynamically update the Registry, you'll quickly become practiced at the skill of using the ViewRefreshcommand (or the F5 key, its accelerator) to force RegEdit to update the portion of the Registry you're viewing.

RegEdit often fails to allow access to the various root keys of remote Registries even when they are displayed (whereas RegEdt32 works flawlessly and consistently well). There doesn't seem to be any pattern to the failures. If you have trouble connecting with RegEdit, try RegEdt32 instead.

Finally, when you're done with your Registry connection, you should close it. Knowing how to put away toys is a prerequisite skill for kindergartners and system administrators! The RegistryDisconnect Network Registry command does the job, allowing you to choose from a list of machines you're connected to.