ahoyle
10th September 2006 22:10 UTC

Registry comparision tool?
Hi

Does anyone know of a good freeware / open source Windows Registry comparision tool.

I have several exist installation files I have created using MS Package and Deploment Tool (Yuck!!). Add several driver .INF installations. I want to debug these existing installations and move to using NSIS.

I want to be able to compare the whole registry before and after I run an installation. To check I understand how the current installation files work, and so I can check that my new NSIS installation works.

Thanks in advance

Anders
11th September 2006 00:06 UTC

export registry before and after and do a simple diff

CrushBug
11th September 2006 01:42 UTC

I can't find the link right now, but there was a package I used called something like MJ's Reg Watch that did exactly what you are looking for. There were a number of filtering options and such that made it fairly straight forward to find out what is going on.

ahoyle
15th September 2006 22:45 UTC

Thanks Andres

I have tried to toa diff after exporting my registry. Unforunately my registry is 156MB when exported. I have tried both windiff and winmerge but both crah while comparing the files (I think they are just too big)

Thanks CrushBug

Great utility. But it seem to montior a few files and registry entries often, not the whole registry once.

I am trying to move an exiting project from a wizard based installer to NSIS, I think I have found most / all of the registry entries the wizard installed generated, but I just what to be sure by comparing the registry before and after on a virgin machine.

Thanks All.

Animaether
16th September 2006 07:59 UTC

156MB isn't so big.. try Total Commander's "Compare Files". You could also export different sections of the registry separately. E.g. HKLM separate from HKCU and such.

That said - look up RegMon by SysInternals. It'll monitor for any registry access. Just start it, run the installer, stop it, then right-click and exlude processes/paths that aren't of interest at all, and you should be left with the interesting bits.

I wouldn't do anything on a virgin machine with pre/post comparisons unless it is truly virgin (image from a fresh install of Windows/etc.) as a lot of uninstallers do -not- uninstall absolutely everything; so you'll never get a clean diff for a 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc. install.