Using a Registry editor to view the contents of the Registry for a remote computer makes it easier for a system administrator to solve users' configuration problems.
Windows NT 4.0 includes two tools for viewing and editing the Registry, both called Registry Editor. The traditional tool, Regedt32.exe, is documented more thoroughly in these chapters. The new tool, Regedit.exe, has a Windows NT Explorer interface. It has many of the same functions as Regedt32 and an expanded search capability. Both tools are installed automatically when you install Windows NT on any computer.
You can use a Registry editor on your computer to view and edit the Registry of a remote computer. Then you can browse Registry entries to identify problems. To view and edit the Registry of a remote computer:
You can also load a copy of a hive from another computer to view and change entries, as described in "Loading Hives from a Remote Computer" in Chapter 24, "Registry Editors and Registry Administration."
Registry Editor is most useful as a tool to find the source of problems, not to edit value entries. After you find the source of a problem, Control Panel or other tools can be more safely used to solve the problem.
For example, you can easily check the user's desktop settings by examining the values under the Console and Control Panel subkeys for the user. The Console subkeys define settings for the command prompt and other character-based applications. The Control Panel subkeys in the Registry define the appearance and behavior of items in the Windows NT desktop.
1. Use a Registry editor to view the Registry of the user's computer.
2. Under HKEY_USERS for the selected computer, double-click the subkey that represents the profile of the user. (The subkeys are named by the Security ID string (SID_#) of each user.)
Tip To determine which SID_# subkey is associated with a user, see the values for ProfileImagePath in the following Registry path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software
\Microsoft
\Windows NT
\CurrentVersion
\ProfileList
\SID_#
Double-click the ProfileImagePath value entry. The value of ProfileImagePath is a binary representation of the directory name of the user's profile, which includes the user's name.
3. Double-click the Console subkey if the problem involves a character-based screen.
– Or –
Double-click the Control Panel subkey if the problem involves a Windows NT window.
4. Check values as described in the Help topic for User Preferences on the Windows NT Workstation Resource Kit CD.
For example, suppose a user complains that their screen turns black whenever they click the shortcut icon for a utility that runs in a command prompt window. You can select this computer in a Registry editor, and then select the following subkey:
HKEY_USERS
\SID_#
\Console
\Name of shortcut
In this example, if the value of ScreenColors is 0, both the text and the screen background have been set to black, and this is the source of the user's problem. To fix this by selecting new colors, the user can double-click the shortcut icon, press alt+spacebar to display the Control menu, click Properties, then click the Colors tab.
Tip
To change the colors or the bitmap that appear on the CTRL+ALT+DELETE logon screen, change the Wallpaper value entry under HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop. For example, if you want a bitmap of your company's logo on the logon screen, change the value of Wallpaper to specify the path and filename of the logo bitmap.