5.3 Browsing with RegEdt32

RegEdt32 's interface isn't as "discoverable" as RegEdit; that's just a fancy way of saying that it's not as easy to just jump in and start poking around. However, this doesn't mean that using RegEdt32 is hard--just a little unfamiliar if you're not an old File Manager hand.

Since each root key appears in its own independent window, your browsing sessions usually focuses on the subkeys of one particular root key. One nice thing about having each root key in a separate window is that it makes it easy to compare Registry values on different machines, as shown in Figure 5.2. Since you can minimize, resize, and position each window independently, it's easy to put off the ones you're not interested in at the moment, then recall them later when you need them.^[2]

^[2] Of course, since HKCU and HKCR are really links to subkeys of HKU and HKLM, respectively, you can get all you need by leaving HKU and HKLM open and hiding the rest.

Figure 5.2. Arranging your RegEdt32 windows

5.3.1 Navigating with the Keyboard

If you've used the keyboard to navigate around the Windows 3.1 File Manager, you'll feel right at home doing the same in RegEdt32. Table 5.1 shows the key navigation commands you can use to move around. The last four entries in the table are actually accelerators for commands in the Tree menu.

Table 5.1. Navigational Keys for RegEdt32

Key	When Used in...	Action
Tab	Tree or data panes	Switches focus between the key and value panes
Return	Tree pane	Expands currently selected key but not its subkeys
Return	Data pane	Opens selected item for editing
Up/down arrows	Tree or data panes	Moves focus to the next or previous item in the current pane
Left/right arrows	Tree or data panes	Scrolls the active pane left or right if it has scrollbars; otherwise, moves to the next or previous item in the tree
PgUp/PgDn	Tree or data panes	Moves the focus up or down one pane's worth of data
Home and End	Tree or data panes	Moves to top or bottom of pane's contents
+	Tree pane	Expands the currently selected key but not its subkeys
*	Tree pane	Expands all subkeys of the currently selected key
Ctrl+ *	Tree pane	Expands the entire tree; may take a few seconds
-	Tree pane	Collapses the selected key and all its subkeys