Managing Registry with PowerShell
Managing registry with PowerShell: Registry keys are items on Windows PowerShell drives, working with them is very similar to working with files and folders. Registry entries are properties of keys and, as such, cannot be directly browsed, we need to take a slightly different approach when working with them.
Playing with Windows Registry is dangerous and sometimes may cause system damage. Only proceed if you know what you are doing. First try on test servers with proper registry backup.
Get list of available providers: Get-PSDrive
PS C:\> Get-PSDrive Name Used (GB) Free (GB) Provider Root CurrentLocation ---- --------- --------- -------- ---- --------------- Alias Alias C 239.38 713.88 FileSystem C:\ Cert Certificate \ Env Environment Function Function HKCU Registry HKEY_CURRENT_USER HKLM Registry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Variable Variable WSMan WSMan
Listing All Subkeys of a Registry Key:
PS C:\>Get-ChildItem -Path HKCU:\ | Select-Object Name Name ---- HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Console HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Environment HKEY_CURRENT_USER\EUDC HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Keyboard Layout HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Network HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Printers HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE HKEY_CURRENT_USER\System HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Uninstall HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Volatile Environment
If you use Get-ChildItem -Path hkcu:\ , this will display Name and Property.
The following command will copy all Keys and properties in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion1
PS C:\> Copy-Item -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion' -Destination 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion1'
PS C:\>

Creating Keys
Creating new keys in the registry is simpler than creating a new item in a file system. Because all registry keys are containers, you do not need to specify the item type; you simply supply an explicit path, such as:
PS C:\> New-Item -Path hkcu:\NewItem_DeleteMe
Hive: HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Name Property
---- --------
NewItem_DeleteMe

Deleting Keys
Deleting items is essentially the same for all providers. The following commands will silently remove items:
Remove-Item -Path hkcu:\NewItem_DeleteMe
PS C:\> Remove-Item -Path hkcu:\NewItem_DeleteMe
PS C:\>