On 10/13/2010 17:25, mm wrote:
On Wed, 13 Oct 2010 15:04:59 -0400, Bill Blanton
wrote:

On 10/13/2010 12:50, none wrote:
Was wondering if there is a way to read an old registry (user.dat& system.dat from 9 years ago).
I need certain entries from that time but don't know how to scan the
registry.

Boot to DOS and enter
regedit /?
for the command syntax.

Say your old user.dat is in C:\Windows\Temp, and you want to export the
HKCU\Software key to the file C:\MyExport.txt.

regedit /R:C:\Windows\Temp\user.dat /E C:\MyExport.txt
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software

(I doublespaced the above for readability. Single space the command)

Wow, this is great to know.

Yet all the windows reg editors insist on using the registry that's in
use at the time. How come none (none?) allow one to specify the
address like the dos version does?

NT versions of regedit allow loading inactive NT registries as a hive in
the active registry. (At least win2k and greater)