[Feature] Ability to search/index Registry

[Coldblackice]

I know this is a longshot, but is there any chance Everything 1.5 could be unshackled to transcend into a new dimension of bits and time, namely, the Windows registry?

I realize average Joe user doesn't have much need for foraging around in the registry, but for any IT/admins in the house, the registry gets used and pored over nearly as much as filesystems do. If Everything's all-seeing magnifying glass had the power to search (indexing would be cherry on top) the Windows registry -- even if it had zero polish to it whatsoever -- it would be a dream come true. Being able to search both filesystems and Windows' registry all from Everything's pane of power would truly be next-level.

Regedit's search is woefully slow and incompetent, forcing a resorting to other tools, like Registry Registrar Manager: a powerful registry suite and with a faster search than Regedit, but it's an overly heavy program to get running and with a bloated "meh" UI. I have no doubt that Everything would be able to dunk over it, or any other registry program/tool out there.

A girl can dream, can't she?

[NotNull]

Oh man (M/F), I would love to see that!!
I spend a lot of time in the registry, although I have to admit taht it gets less now Windows makes it a lot harder to configure things beyond UI and GPOs.

Couple of months ago I had the same idea and even 'investigated' the possibility of real-time updates (looks like that is possible!).
But to combine them in one tool - I envisioned a separate utility - would make it even better!
I thought I would be the only person that was interested in something like this, so didn't suggest it. I am glad you did!


I use RR too, btw. The search in RR is so much better than in regedit and I love the ability to add remarks/descriptions to registry keys. But starting is slow indeed. UI is OK for me.
(end of off-topic slow chat. Forgive me, I am just exited about all this )

[therube]

(I don't know that it would be faster - though you can set filters, [Nirsoft's] RegScanner is a small utility that allows you to scan the Registry, find the desired Registry values that match to the specified search criteria, and display them in one list. After finding the Registry values, you can easily jump to the right value in RegEdit, simply by double-clicking the desired Registry item. You can also export the found Registry values into a .reg file that can be used in RegEdit.j)

[Coldblackice]

Oh man (M/F), I would love to see that!! I spend a lot of time in the registry, although I have to admit taht it gets less now Windows makes it a lot harder to configure things beyond UI and GPOs.

100% agreed. More and more I find myself having to monitor systemwide registry access just so I can "surveil" where Windows is hiding settings or things it's changing in the registry, particularly from W10's disastrous "ControlSettingsPanel" GUI (six years on and W10 still has a foot in each bucket )

Couple of months ago I had the same idea and even 'investigated' the possibility of real-time updates (looks like that is possible!).
But to combine them in one tool - I envisioned a separate utility - would make it even better!
I thought I would be the only person that was interested in something like this, so didn't suggest it. I am glad you did!

So cool! And funny because I've also had this idea for a while now but haven't suggested it because I felt I'd be the only one interested in it Glad I'm not the only one!

Everything becoming "multilingual" like this would be so usefully next-level that it would almost feel like cheating, Everything being able to "dual-wield" while the competition are all stuck "solo-wielding" And for it to be real-time too?! FANTASTIC. I would've been ecstatic even with just intervaled snapshots. Real-time would be taking this to a whole new dimension.

I know for a fact there will be many, many users who will instantly utilize this ability should you implement it in Everything and even come to rely on it. I know I sure will. Everything is already the de facto master of the filesystem(s) throughout the IT world -- and the many, many computers that are built, set up, fixed, maintained by these types (I've lost count of how many people's computers I've introduced to Everything). Adding a registry access/index/search ability would truly make "Everything" live up to its name!

I use RR too, btw. The search in RR is so much better than in regedit and I love the ability to add remarks/descriptions to registry keys. But starting is slow indeed. UI is OK for me.

Wow, I had no idea you could do that in RR! I'll have to start doing that. My routine has been leaving an obscene amount of overly descriptive "Favorites" in Regedit, which I add/edit/remove/export from the direct location in the registry that these favorites get stored, and then later I'll re-import into RR. But being able to comment in RR would be much easier and more intuitive, so thanks for the tip.

That being said, I would still ditch RR and any other registry tool in a heartbeat if Everything was upgraded with the ability to work its magic on the registry

(I don't know that it would be faster - though you can set filters, [Nirsoft's] RegScanner is a small utility that allows you to scan the Registry, find the desired Registry values that match to the specified search criteria, and display them in one list. After finding the Registry values, you can easily jump to the right value in RegEdit, simply by double-clicking the desired Registry item. You can also export the found Registry values into a .reg file that can be used in RegEdit.j)

I use RegScanner which is definitely a useful tool, but like you mention, it's slower and requires more deliberate upfront setting up / planning out, which usually isn't the majority of the routine quickie tasks I'm jumping in and out of the registry frequently for. Where RegScanner comes through is for bigger/bulkier tasks, but where it really shines for me, however, and its best ability IMO, is that it can display registry timestamps, which no other registry utilities can do that I've found. It's very useful for being able to see when certain keys were created, last modified, etc. I wish this was natively incorporated into Regedit.

I also use "Process Monitor" regularly which also has the ability to "Jump to" registry keys directly which were accessed in some way by the system or programs running. And another tool I also use is NirSoft's RegistryChangesView, which compares snapshots of the registry, and is convenient to see what was just changed in the registry by the system or a particular program. I use this often when I want to change something in Windows or by Group Policy or within a program, and then quickly see a "diff" of what was just changed in the registry. This program also has the ability to right-click and jump straight to specific keys.