regat.ps1

regat.ps1 is a PowerShell script that starts regedit.exe and lets it display a given registry key. This can be achieved by writing the value of the desired key into the value LastKey under the registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Regedit (see also Opening the registry at a given key).

Source code

#
#   V0.6
#

param (
   [parameter(
        mandatory                  =$true,
        valueFromRemainingArguments=$true
   )]
   [string[]] $regKeyParts
)

set-strictMode -version 3

$regKey = $regKeyParts -join ' '

if ($regKey -eq 'userenv') {
    $regkeyNoColon = 'hkcu\environment'
}
elseif ($regkey -eq 'machineenv') {
    $regkeyNoColon = 'hklm\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment'
}
else {

   $regKey = $regKey -replace '^Computer\\'          , ''

   $regKey = $regKey -replace '^hkey_local_machine\b', 'hklm'
   $regKey = $regKey -replace '^hkey_current_user\b' , 'hkcu'
   $regKey = $regKey -replace '^hkey_classes_root\b' , 'hkcr'

   $regKey = $regKey -replace '\\$', ''
   $regKey = $regKey -replace '/$' , ''

   $regkeyColon   = $regKey        -replace '^hkcu:?'  , 'hkcu:'
   $regKeyColon   = $regKeyColon   -replace '^hklm:?'  , 'hklm:'
   $regKeyColon   = $regKeyColon   -replace '^hkcr:?'  , 'hkcr:'

   $regKeyNoColon = $regKeyColon   -replace '^hkcu:'   , 'hkcu'
   $regKeyNoColon = $regKeyNoColon -replace '^hklm:'   , 'hklm'
   $regKeyNoColon = $regKeyNoColon -replace '^hkcr:'   , 'hkcr'

   if ($regKeyColon -match '^hkcr') {
      $null = new-psDrive -name hkcr -psProvider registry -root HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
   }

   if (-not (test-path $regkeyColon) ) {
      write-host "Registry key $regKey does not exist"
      return
   }
}



write-host "open registry at $regKeyNoColon"
if (! (test-path HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Regedit)) {
   write-host "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Regedit does not exit, creating it"
   $null = new-item HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Regedit
}
set-itemProperty HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Regedit  LastKey $regKeyNoColon

& regedit -m

Github repository scripts-and-utilities, path: /regat.ps1

History

V0.1	Initial version (2021-08-02)
V0.2	Replace `hkey_local_machine` with `hklm`, `hkey_current_user` with `hkcu`.
V0.3	Allow opening keys below `HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\` (and add a 'hkcr:' drive if necessary)
V0.4	Use `valueFromRemainingArguments` attribute on parameter so that registry keys with spaces can be copy-pasted to the command line.
V0.5	Remove leading `Computer\` from registry key to be opened. (`Computer\` is prepended to a registry key when copying from «address bar» with the registry editor `regedit.exe`.
V0.6	Create registry key `HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Regedit` if it does not exist (2022-07-24)

`userenv`	Opens the registry key that stores the personal environment variables.
`machineenv`	Opens the registry key that stores the system environment variables

regat.ps1

Example invocations

Source code

History

See also