Best Free Registry Editor

Have u tried running it as administrator?Or changing permissions?

Hi

Whilst I would not confident to review this product, having not used it enough, I'm surprised you had without even installing it!

Name me a product that does promise & guarantees to be free of bugs or program errors.

I don't believe this is a trial version. If you read the agreement it say "a trial version" not "this trial version"

Many programs ask you to submit bug reports, even Microsoft.

I don't understand why you mention paying for it. This is a free version from a site which collects together the best free software!

Registrar Lite 2.0 does the work.

Freeware with very good feature. Old and excellent.

Perhaps I'm not understanding you correctly, but I'm using version 2, and I sometimes change permissions: right-click on the key > Properties > Permissions.

"I have no idea if it's Vista compatible, it as less features, no multi-level undo (in 5.6.6 it's blocked anyway), you can edit permissions at will, and just imagine: no nag screen!"

http://www.winaddons.com/registrar-lite-20/

selectfreeware.com wrote:
"It should work on all versions of Windows..."

DesElms's response:
Indeed the VSFT web site says that its version 1.60 (current as of this writing) of its product will run on all versions of Windows. However, I just downloaded it to a brand spankin' new Dell notebook running a 32-bit version of Vista SP1...

...and though it installed correctly, when I tried to launch it I got a "this operating system is not supported" error message pop-up.

So then I tried telling it to execute only as administrator... same thing.

So then I set it to XP compatibility, plus ran it as administrator... same thing.

So then I set it to XP compatibiliity, but didn't run it as administrator... same thing.

So, then... obviously, it won't work on all Windows versions... contrary to what you wrote here. But that's not your fault because it says, right on the VSFT web site, that its Registry Explorer product version 1.6.0 will run on "OS:Windows - all versions"... it's right there in black and... er... well... okay... blue and white.n You can't be faulted for taking them at their word. Too bad they were wrong.

For whatever that's worth.

Now let's hope that Revo Uninstaller can get it all off my machine.

I just downloaded the OO product, though... so far, so good... er... well... kinda' good. Like all registry editors, one needs to remember to go right-single-click on its executable, go into its properties, compatibility, and set it to always open as administrator. If one doesn't do that, one gets all kinds of "cannot do this" or "cannot do that" errors (and, yes, I'm mentioning it because, of course, I forgot). OO's search seems no faster than plain ol' Windows-native RegEdit (that's one area, at least, where RegSeeker really excels... and is nearly the only reason I have RegSeeker on my machine... but I digress... sorry). I do kinda' like how OO's search finds all occurances before displaying any of them. But then I tried to click on a search result and it just hung and finally displayed "Not Responding" at the top of the window.

Hmm. So, then, maybe "so far so good" about OO was a little optimistic. Still testing. Perhaps the word "new" in your "...has a new registry editor that's..." should have tipped me off to the likelihood that it would be ready yet. I'm starting to think maybe it's not.

I'll say at least one thing that's irritating the bejeezus out of me about OO's product, and that's the little pop-up on the second or third loading of it reminding me that it's part of a larger fee-based product and asking me if I want to upgrade; then only giving me the choices of doing so now, or being reminded later. A third choice of "never bring-up this subject with me ever again as long as you live" (or something perhaps less emotional but nevertheless equivalent) would have been nice.

So, then... I'm in dubious, "we'll see" mode on OO's product.

Other opinions, anyone?

Regalyzer is by the same people who make Spybot Search & Destroy... which suggested to me, right out of the gate, that it would probably be above average. I downloaded my first copy about five years ago. Still use it (the latest version, of course) now and then.

It's straightforward, inelegant but serviceable, and offers-up many interesting improvements over Windows' native RegEdit. It's compact and functional, but approaches certain things in a bit of a convoluted way... which is one of my complaints about Spybot S&D as well. The first time I created a new key in it, how to specify its type was not immediately obvious (though it didn't take long to figure out)... speaking of which, its HELP has always been fairly... well... light... almost useless.

Regalyzer's search, while fairly feature-rich (including wildcard and boolean, just to name a couple of its interesting features), seems no faster than Windows' native RegEdit (again, as I mentioned in another posting here, that's where RegSeeker, for whatever it's worth, really excels), and one can start looking at Regalyzer search results before the search is complete... which isn't always a good thing, by the way, when one is in the registry (just my opinion).

RegSeeker also lets one end-run certain key creation limitations found in regular RegEdit... particularly with respect to QWords... which reminds me that Regalyzer can be thought of as one of the best tools for creating and managing some of the more exotic key types. It imports/exports kinda' pretty; has a nice security information and management capability; lets you see session changes (differences) easily; has a fairly feature-rich bookmarking and management capability; a nice "jump to key" feature; change logs; history view... and other kinda' nice stuff that makes it just that much better than plain ol' RegEdit (and most of its competitors).

Heck, the key address bar combo-box thingy up near the top (RegAlyzer calls it the "Search Dialog"), just below the drop-down menus bar, alone, makes it valuable! One normally needs to add Registry Extensions (known as "RegEditX") to Windows' native RegEdit in order to get that!

The current version of Regalyzer runs pretty darned well on Vista... pursuant, even, to Microsoft's Vista logo program (which basically means full compatibility... nay... compliance with Vista standards). That's not insignificant.

Regalyzer isn't updated all that often... but enough. Even its maker, however, keeps referring to it as a work in progress... still unfinished... that kinda' disconcerting language; with improvements, and finishing its own "to do" list, more or less a low priority... or seemingly so. That's not necessarily a bad thing, mind you... just something one should keep in mind.

Regalyzer can easily be one's primary registry editor. It does most or all of what pretty much anyone would need a registry editor to do... save, perhaps, for fast searches and a few persnickety little things. And almost no registry editing product out there -- especially among the free ones -- is good at fast searches (except, again, for RegSeeker). Even the venerable RegEditX recommends the addition of the fee-based (as in "not free") Registry Crawler product in order to vastly improve search speed. Search speed has just always been the bane of registry editing... a fact of life.

I know it's the favorite of the author of this section's article, but I've just never really been all that enamoured of Registrar Lite. Resplendence's fee-based product, on the other hand... very nice. Agreed. But the lite product... I dunno. I always got more "not responding" errors from it than just about anything else I ever tried... for whatever that's worth.

The truth of the matter is that most average users will never even go into their registry. Those who do will mostly just want to strip out of it, as quickly as can be done, all occurances of keys containing certain words (like "logitech", for example, when cleaning-up after a sloppy mouseware de-installation so that a fresh install of a newer version that had been failing can finally be accomplished). For that, RegSeeker reigns supreme... has no rival, actually... at least among the freebies.

For those who actually want to do something in the registry, the simple addition of RegEditX to Windows' native RegEdit can make a night-and-day difference... and may actually be all most people need. If one is willing to spend forty bucks on the project (and this is a freeware-related site, so I'm not proposing that anyone should... but I'm just sayin'), the addition of Registry Crawler to RegEditX is a darned potent combination. Then again, RegEditX plus the free RegSeeker provides essentially the same utility... though there's no integration between the two like there is between RegEditX and Registry Crawler. (And is such integration worth forty bucks, in any case?)

For those with exotic key requirements (or who would just rather edit the registry with something a bit more potent, but still free), Regalyzer, however inelegant (and sometimes even downright weird), may very well be all that anyone would ever need. It's at least that good.

Personally, on any new machine I own (or have to work on for a client) I download and install all three. Once I've done that, I usually just type "RegEditX" into the "Run" box (instead of "RegEdit") whenever I need to do anything quick-and-dirty in the registry... in fact, on any machine which has RegEditX on it, I never open plain ol' RegEdit again.

If I subsequently need anything that only Regalyzer can bring to the table (or which it simply does faster/better than RegEditX), then I use that instead; or sometimes I get in a mood and just use Regalyzer exclusively for long periods of time (I kinda' go back and forth... what can I say).

However, regardless which of those two I use for normal, day-to-day stuff, whenever I need serious registry search speed (like when I'm just cleaning up after a bad uninstall or something, and just want to remove everything containing a certain text string... being careful, of course, to examine each entry first to make sure that I'm not also removing something that merely "talks to" whatever it is that I'm trying to remove), then I use RegSeeker. In fact, RegSeeker's search speed is so superior that I've even been known to open a copy of it first and start searching for something; then, while it's doing that, open Regalyzer; and then when RegSeeker finds the first occurance of whatever I'm looking for, I use Regalyzer's "jump to key" capability to actually go to it and make the edit... in other words, I use RegSeeker as the search engine, then actually edit whatever it finds using a real editing tool like Regalyzer. RegEditX is also very competent at quickly jumping to any given key... beginning its move, in fact, while one is typing said key into its combox. If one copies a key string to the clipboard, then pastes it into RegEditX's combo box, it jumps to said key in an instant!

These are potent tools, people... despite their being freebies! Maybe it's just me, but it's difficult to imagine anything that I couldn't reasonably and easily do in the registry by simply moving around between those three free products, as needed, depending on the situation. I know there are fee-based products out there that will do everything that those will do -- and more -- all in one package. I get that. But I just don't see the need. These three, used alternately, depending on the situation, will do everything... and with aplomb, I should add. What more could anyone want? For as rarely as most users go into the registry, why spend money on it?

Most users go so rarely into the registry for any reason that for many of them, a $40 registry editing/management product may calculate out to two or three (or more) dollars per time that they ever end-up actually going into the registry for any reason for the entire life of their ownership of the machine. That's ridiculous!

Maybe if I were writing a big piece of commercial software which placed and used tons of registry entries, and I needed to go in to said entries a lot and fiddle with them during development and testing, I might consider one of those fee-based products...

...but the truth is, Regalyzer's above-average bookmarking capability, alone, resolves a simple problem like that! (Hey... wait a minute... I do write big pieces of commercial software! And, what d'ya know... I don't use a fee-based registry editing/management product!)

I'm serious, here... I've just never understood why the average user would ever spend a single penny on a registry editor when a potent combination like RegEditX, Regalyzer, and RegSeeker (or maybe even just Regalyzer, alone) can be had for free!

Or, what the heck, even Registrar Lite... if one can actually find a copy... and if it doesn't "not respond" too often.

NOTE: As of this writing, version 6.02 of the Resplendence Registrar Registry Manager is available for download... however, it's worthy of note, I think, that McAfee's Site Advisor warns against it... though for a generally inconsequential reason, I should, in fairness, point out.

RegEditX. Regalyzer. RegSeeker. Killer combo. Just my two cents worth... which my ex-wife happily points out whenever I say it is usually pretty much all it's worth. [grin]

Hope that helps.

I found that you can still get the 2.0 version of Registrar Lite, and it is great! But I also found one a shareware one called Registry Workshop that I liked a lot www.torchsoft.com/.

Indeed, your post has puzzled me. The 5.6.6 installer doesn't have a digital signature, but it's drivers, (unpacked or installed) have. Here's rrmon.sys details:

==================================================
Campo : Versão
Valor : V2
==================================================

==================================================
Campo : Emissor
Valor : GlobalSign ObjectSign CA, ObjectSign CA, GlobalSign nv-sa, BE
==================================================

==================================================
Campo : Número de série
Valor : ?01 00 00 00 00 01 12 f6 be 1e 50
==================================================

==================================================
Campo : Algoritmo de resumo
Valor : sha1
==================================================

==================================================
Campo : Algoritmo de encriptação do resumo
Valor : RSA
==================================================

==================================================
Campo : Atributos de autenticação
Valor :
==================================================

==================================================
Campo : 1.3.6.1.4.1.311.2.1.12
Valor : 30 00
==================================================

==================================================
Campo : Tipo de conteúdo
Valor : 06 0a 2b 06 01 04 01 82 37 02 01 04
==================================================

==================================================
Campo : Message Digest
Valor : 04 14 5c e9 11 b7 04 73 a0 50 e3 e1 a1 54 cf 92 cc ad 88 b5 c7 14
==================================================

==================================================
Campo : Atributos não autenticados
Valor :
==================================================

==================================================
Campo : Contra-assinatura
Valor : 30 82 01 67 02 01 01 30 67 30 53 31 0b 30 09 06 03 55 04 06 13 02 55 53 31 17 30 15 06 03 55 04 0a 13 0e 56 65 72 69 53 69 67 6e 2c 20 49 6e 63 2e 31 2b 30 29 06 03 55 04 03 13 22 56 65 72 69 53 69 67 6e 20 54 69 6d 65 20 53 74 61 6d 70 69 6e 67 20 53 65 72 76 69 63 65 73 20 43 41 02 10 38 25 d7 fa f8 61 af 9e f4 90 e7 26 b5 d6 5a d5 30 0c 06 08 2a 86 48 86 f7 0d 02 05 05 00 a0 59 30 18 06 09 2a 86 48 86 f7 0d 01 09 03 31 0b 06 09 2a 86 48 86 f7 0d 01 07 01 30 1c 06 09 2a 86 48 86 f7 0d 01 09 05 31 0f 17 0d 30 38 30 32 30 39 30 35 34 39 34 36 5a 30 1f 06 09 2a 86 48 86 f7 0d 01 09 04 31 12 04 10 5a 68 73 bf 00 f8 89 98 dc 87 ed cd 67 f4 8d 62 30 0d 06 09 2a 86 48 86 f7 0d 01 01 01 05 00 04 81 80 7c 4c ef 95 55 96 a9 f6 a8 f3 5f 44 c9 63 c3 83 bb 8a 45 1b 44 56 5f bd 9d c6 86 8d a0 da 94 a0 6e 12 7f 32 2f e3 9c a3 44 dd be d6 40 18 5a 36 b9 26 57 84 40 73 16 76 c5 b5 96 ef 4b c2 a3 0f 71 95 ce 96 64 b2 26 60 94 1b a5 e6 df 10 fb cb 4d f4 fd dd 48 2b df 6d 1f e5 43 ea 53 3d cf c6 85 3a 0d ee 22 52 98 7a f5 ef 80 a7 cd d9 f1 3b b5 6f ca 5b fe 25 7c 74 db 8e 93 04 67 70 44 37
==================================================

As for Mcafee info, after my previous post, I checked your url, and the problem seems to be it's online affiliations, not the downloads provided (all 10 with 0 score in the Nuisance Meter).

If it helps, here's the 2 files data (I rename them myself, the download is always rrtri.exe):

File: D:\Documents\rrtri556.exe
Size: 2706192 bytes
MD5: ACCB2848EA151FA18E7A3F30A3D7EBB8
SHA1: 30BC647502F2B9F44F83835C49DC8EAF61E21C27
CRC32: 43BADB2D

File: D:\Programas\rrtri566.exe
Size: 2631824 bytes
MD5: 23CDC60AEFEF632AE0D5366D75E7B458
SHA1: 573B2571B580AA17340ED3A6040D7C58D1FF2A0B
CRC32: 8ED0B612

The Registrar version provided in the download page (v.5.5.6), like the one in the Registrar home page (v.5.5.0) are definetly wrong. As for Win 2K problems, try to contact them. This is a higly recommeded product, but remember the nag screen does nag. And no, there's no malware bundled, constant false positives was the reason I quit Mcafee Siteadvisor.

Ccleaner is a registry cleaner, not an editor.

After a brief test, seems to me that for the average user that uses Erunt to backup, this tool is overkill and somewhat bloated in it's current version. The nag screen popups all the time, that's unpleasant, and the undo feature is disabled. My main problem with regedit is the very slow and very basic search feature, so I would suggest another freeware to enhance it, RegScanner from Nirsoft: all you have to do is unpack, run, search and jump to the specific key.

2 examples of usage:

http://www.nirsoft.net/articles/find_registry_large_values.html

http://www.nirsoft.net/articles/find_modified_time_registry_key.html

Description and download link:

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/regscanner.html

BTW, it's portable and the download only 49KB.

Where we can download Registrar Lite 2.0?
Thanks.