Introducing RegFileEdit -- yet another new tool!

What problem it solves? A picture is worth a thousand words they say:

Editing .reg files without RegFileEdit:


Editing the exact same .reg file with RegFileEdit:

It converts the hex encoded unicode strings into plain text for you to edit, and then converts it back, all transparently. It makes editing .reg files quicker/easier (75,6E,6C,65,73,73,20,79,6F,75,72,20,6E,61,74,69,76,65,20,6C,61,6E,67,75,61,67,65,20,69,73,20,68,65,7
8,61,64,65,63,69,6D,61,6C,3F )

It takes only one argument: the name of the .reg file. So you can use it easily from the command line. Or if you don't want to, put the .exe anywhere you want, right click on a .reg file, select open with, pick the .exe (I wouldn't really make it the default tool), done. You'll have it under "open with" afterwards.

Some notes:
-it'll use your default text editor, whatever it may be (notepad, notepad++, ultraedit, editpad, etc)
-doesn't matter if your editor doesn't update timestamp or filesize is the same (or if you save without making changes), as it compares SHA1 hashes
-it now "supports" REG_EXPAND_SZ and also REG_MULTI_SZ. For REG_MULTI_SZ values, new lines are delimited with the ` character (accent grave, right below the escape key on a en-US keyboard layout)
-it requires the .NET framework 2 as it's a C# app

Bug reports in this thread please

Being a beta version, there are no warranties whatsoever that there isn't a bug that will corrupt your .reg files altogether (haven't noticed anything bad though), so I'd backup my .reg files first (I might add a backup function in the next build, I just didn't want it to create .bak files everywhere). And as always you import .reg files at your own risks! No blaming me if someone hoses their registry when importing a .reg file, you know the risks!

Updated screenshot of the app itself:


Download link: http://www.rapidspread.com/file.jsp?id=wgyereacvn

I'm open to suggestions.

Sounds good. Will give it a try. Thank you.

New version, first post updated.

Changelog:

• it's now a winforms app instead of a console app (prettier)
• it now also handles REG_MULTI_SZ values (using ` as a new line delimiter)
• fixed a bug in the generation of the .reg files
• the generated output (new .reg file) now matches closely regedit's output (i.e. max width); output will be identical in the next build (it's already "fixed" but I'm too lazy to recompile, rezip, reupload and all)
• been tested more

It's crashing on me with some files. Those files have lines of registry code that are commented out, for example:
; "Local Settings"=hex(2):64,00,3a,00,5c,00,25,00,75,00,73,00,65,00,72,00,6e,00,\
; 61,00,6d,00,65,00,25,00,5c,00,6c,00,6f,00,63,00,61,00,6c,00,20,00,73,00,65,\
; 00,74,00,74,00,69,00,6e,00,67,00,73,00,00,00

Man this thing rocks cause I hate that binary crap! *laughing* ...um, ok hex
Keep up the good work!

crahak wrote: "too lazy to recompile, rezip, reupload and all"
Couldn't you use some automation software to take care of all that? Or in Unix, string together the outputs so everything gets taken care of when you initiate the sequence?

Awesome tool!

I haven't had a problem with commented lines in Windows 2000. No crashes for me yet.

(I opened a file with regfileedit. commented some lines, saved. opened in notedpad. opened in regfileedit, and still no problem.)

Cant download from zShare.
Just switches between Download Now and Download CountDown Page.
Why zShare when there's MediaFire?

Oh, I hadn't thought about that case at all. Thanks for the bug report I'll have to comment some stuff in some .reg files and try that. There will be a new version out tomorrow that will handle all this right (only a couple lines to add).


That would be more work to do then it is to do it in the first place It's actually not much work at all: hit ctrl-shift-B to compile (instantaneous), and compressing it is little more than right clicking on it (add to archive, max compression, ok). It's purely lazyness


Never heard a single complaint about zshare until now. Why zhsare? Well, I just had to pick one from dozens of them (rapidshare, megaupload, etc). Either ways, I just added a mediafire mirror in the first post.

Thanks for the mediafire link.
MediaFire is far more better than zShare or anything else.
But I get the following message:

Hope you correct this.
Thanks in advance.

Any particular reasons? I've had 0 problems with any others myself, be it zhsare, rapidshare, megaupload, mihd, easyshare, yousendit, etc.


Actually, it gives me that error message too, even though that's the actual link it gave me to hand out. Now, it doesn't give me any way to fix it, and it won't let me reupload it either (error: file exists). So I'm tempted to say it's not quite the best...

This link should definitely have a mirror you can use: [removed, see first post for latest version]

Any comment to why my ZoneAlarm Anitvirus SCREAMS Virus Type_Win32 to Your file/prog?

/SwedenXP

False positive. It must be because of the obfuscator used (what it does to the PE header specifically). There's no virus. Feel free to monitor its actions with Process Monitor and the like.

A quick upload on jotti shows all clean on all AVs, with the exception of kaspersky, that says probable variant of Type_Win32 -- and that's a heuristics detection too (19/20 clean, 1/20 says might have something).

On a side note, I never even heard of that antivirus before. Hopefully it won't flag the next build.

MediaFire has no captcha verification, supports download manager, parallel downloads and even download resume and no download timer delays and waiting.
It clean, gives no problems ( Today is the first time I m getting it)
Thanks for the rapidspread link. Zippyshare was as great as MediaFire.
I just got problem with zShare and a lot of times before.
Rapidshare always gives nothing but problems.
Here's other great upload sites: http://downtown.vc , http://ifile.it
Here's how mediafire share link looks like, just an example i got- http://www.mediafire.com/?595gtmjyx3w
Youes seemed diffrerent, didnt it?

@crahak I believe You - but I wanted to tell You!

I think this prog looks really interesting and I will follow Your development of it!

/SwedenXP

It's all good. It just caught me off-guard I guess. I don't run an antivirus at all (haven't had a single virus in several years anyways), so I thought one have made it past my guard for a sec.

I'll be more cautious with the next release (virus check it on jotti first), besides, it was a bit rushed I guess -- it's not even tested to work on XP actually, only on Vista.


It probably won't be all that interesting to follow. Next build should fix the comment thing, and after that, there probably won't be another build, unless another bug is found, or that some new feature is requested.

Bug:

I was trying to copy and paste a line from one reg file to another and I opened both at same time and my first file got overwritten with the other. Lost all my settings in the first file.

WOW! this tool is simply awesome. Cant wait to try it..
Thanks Crahak

Oops. Thanks for that bug report too. I didn't think someone would actually open 2 instances at once. It creates a fixed temp file (%temp%\reg_temp.txt), so if you open another instance, it'll overwrite that file, and if you exit the first one without saving first, it'll see the file has indeed changed, and do its job based on that... I'll make it used numbered temp files instead (%temp%\reg_temp_0000.txt or such, counting up).

Ok, next build is online. First post updated with new URL with several mirrors.

2 bugs fixed:
-commented entries work as intended (you can even comment/uncomment them, works just fine)
-you can edit up as many files as you want simultaneously (well, up to 1000, should largely suffice)

Virus tested on jotti, all 20 AVs reporting as clean.

Edit:
Sorry, there won't be any further updates as the source code disappeared when an old WD hard drive died (no backups, I know...). If there is a need for a similar-ish app, I'll re-write it from scratch.

being able to open multiples files in one instance would be helpful.

Important lesson here (i.e. note to self) - always make a backup of file before opening it in beta software.