WinVistaClub : How To Monitor Changes In The Vista Registry

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How To Monitor Changes In The Windows Vista Registry

Windows Vista does not provide an in-built Registry monitoring tool, unfortunately.

The most you can do in Vista is to harness the command-line program fc.exe to compare registry export files that you create before and after the registry change.

First, export a .reg file (or .txt file) and name it as say reg1
Then let the change happen; ie install the program, etc.
Now export the changed .reg file (or .txt file) and name it as say, reg2.

Open a command prompt and type

fc /u reg1.reg reg2.reg > regcompare.txt

Since .reg files use unicode, the /u switch, tells fc.exe to use Unicode
You can now inspect the output regcompare in Notepad

Alternatively, you may want to use 3rd party tools. Sysinternals Process Monitor is a great freeware, to monitor registry changes in real time

Process Monitor is an advanced monitoring tool for Windows that shows real-time file system, Registry and process/thread activity. It combines the features of two legacy Sysinternals utilities, Filemon and Regmon, and adds an extensive list of enhancements including rich and non-destructive filtering, comprehensive event properties such session IDs and user names, reliable process information, full thread stacks with integrated symbol support for each operation, simultaneous logging to a file, and much more.

RegShot is another small registry compare utility that allows you to quickly take a snapshot of your Registry and then compare it with a second one; done after doing system changes or installing a new software product. The changes report can be produced in text or HTML format and contains a list of all modifications that have taken place between snapshot1 and snapshot2.

These Links May Interest You:
De-Mystifying Windows Vista Registry
How To Restrict or Restore Access to Vista's Registry Editor
How To Back Up, Restore, Maintain the Vista Registry.