Registry watcher
I'm looking for an application which watches all registry changes after OS install. If I install the trial version of Avast AntiVirus Internet Security, it ought to remove all registry changes made by that application. Meaning, if I installed the application again, the trial would start from 30 days.
Please, don't recommend me Revo Uninstaller and the like. They don't cut it.
Try Registrar Registry Manager. It's the best full-featured registry manager there is. Besides the obvious features, it also includes an activity monitor which is exactly what you are looking for. Can monitor specific operations such as: read, write, successful read, successful write and can monitor by specific application and/or by excluding several apps from search. And the results can be exported to a text file. The output is similar to this:
Code:Date/time Action Process Status Key Not used Value Value type Data Size Not used Not used HKEY PID ThreadID CPU ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9/6/2011 17:21:47.9581853 QueryKey opera.exe 00000000 STATUS_SUCCESS HKEY_USERS\SANDBOX_RAZOR_OPERA\machine 64 3628 3632 0
SL mentioned that application. For my use, ought I monitor write and successful write or only successful write? Should I monitor more specific operations? Is the application able to monitor all successful write operations and monitor selected applications? I know it may be redundant, nevertheless I would find that useful.
I think you may know about it, but I'll post it anyway,
Process Monitor
I don't know what specialities Master Razor's application have over this, but I tested it and It seems it can do the job well; monitor everything and then set a filter to look for Avast for example.
I am cheatos
I would say to monitor write and successful write. It's useful for users that modify settings in windows/specific applications and want to see which registry key corresponds to the setting. It wasn't intended for such installation activities but it will record all successful writes.
Sorry if I couldn't be more helpful but I really haven't tested it on application install.
It's still a lot safer than your average registry snapshot-install-compare. Those kind of applications capture everything (and chances are that they will capture a lot more than your application).
When you say
what does that mean? Will it look for registry changes where it says "Avast" or is it more advanced?Originally Posted by cheatos
Seems like those applications aren't safe to rely on. Maybe it can be used in combination with Registrar Registry Manager.
Sorry for the late reply, (now I guess it's late, you must have already experimented with it ?)
Anyway, I didn't try it much, but you can try it 'live' in a VM,
install windows, install avast and this program,
install avast while this program is monitoring, then save the log,
later, open the log again, and select avast's exe or setup name as filter.
It should work, howeve it's not tested.
I am cheatos
The registry is constantly read and written to. Regshot takes a snapshot before and another after the changes have been made and only then it compares and outputs the changes. However, if between the snapshots a program is running in the background, say a virtual machine or utorrent or an antivirus then it will also be recorded but only if it writes to the registry. Which is something you can't be sure of. I'm not saying they are bad but you'll have to be careful.
The thing that I have discovered in using Registrar Registry Manager is that it allows the user to multi-delete .reg entries as opposed to what Windows registry allows the user to do. That is to only individually delete unwanted .reg files making that process very time consuming.
I've always found that after using the above named registry cleaner, which is in fact quite good for a number of reasons not to mention to see who the owner is of what-ever named registry and be able to change that ownership, is that it doesn't quite empty the registry of all unwanted registry entries (and many other very good inclusions that other registry cleaners don't offer are provided in this registry cleaner. You'll see once you begin using). Anyways, back on topic and I will tell you that no software on the market will completely and entirely clean out unwanted registry values. None will. You will always, always, and always have to go inside your own registry to take out unwanted registry entries. Revo??----forget it. It's useless. As are many other programs with the exception of a few.
There is one other very, very good registry seeker and cleaner called Registry First Aid. Very good program. It will definitely clean out your registry but man, I tell ya..you better make some back-ups of registries that your unfamiliar with in using this program. I"ve had to bust my a$$ getting my registry back because I didn't make a back-up of .reg files that I knew I should have at at that time.
CCleaner does'n't do enough of a good job. It only takes out 'safe' registry entries to delete without that deletion harming your system. PCCleaner??---forget that too.
Last edited by SealLion; 10.09.11 at 05:54.
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