Viewing the Registry of a Remote Computer

In the same way that you can use Event Viewer or User Manager to view details of another computer, you can use Registry Editor to view and change the contents of another computer's Registry if the Server service on the remote computer is running.

The ability to view a computer's configuration remotely means that the system administrator can examine a user's startup parameters, desktop configuration, and other parameters. So you, as the administrator, can provide troubleshooting or other support assistance over the telephone while you view settings on the other computer from your own workstation.

To view the Registry of a remote computer with Regedt32

· From the Registry menu, click Select Computer, then type the name of the computer whose Registry you want to access, or double-click a name from the Select Computer list. If you are running Windows NT Server, the first name in this list represents the name of a domain. If no computer name appears after this domain name, double-click the domain name to view a list of the computers in that domain.

Note

In Regedt32, Auto Refresh is not available when you are viewing the Registry from a remote computer. To update the display, use the Refresh All and Refresh Active commands on the View menu.

Two Registry windows appear in Regedt32 for the remote computer, one for HKEY_USERS and one for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. You can view or modify the information on keys for the remote computer if the access controls defined for the keys allow you to perform such operations. If you are logged on as a member of the Administrators group, you can perform actions on all keys.

To disconnect from the Registry of a remote computer by using Regedt32, from the Registry menu, click Close for each subtree window.

To view the Registry of a remote computer by using Regedit

· From the Registry menu, click Connect Network Registry, then type the name of the computer whose Registry you want to access, or click Browse to select a computer name from the network list.

An icon representing the remote computer appears in the Regedit window. Click the plus sign (+) to view the contents of the Registry. To disconnect from the Registry of a remote computer by using Regedit, from the Registry menu, click Disconnect Network Registry, click the name of the computer from which you are disconnecting, then click OK.