I'm currently trying to replace a powershell script with a cmd script as it's more suitable for what is trying to be done.
In Powershell I'm using this bit of code to return a list of personal folder directories on the computer
$Name = [Environment]::UserName
get-item HKCU:\software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook\Search\Catalog - ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | select -expandProperty property | Out-File Z:\global\pst\PowershellOutput\$Name.txt -append
This does what I want and outputs a list of directories like so
H:\PST\My Outlook Data File 1.pst
H:\PST\My Outlook Data File 2.pst
C:\PST\My Outlook Data File 3.pst
However when I run this line to extract the registry key
regedit.exe /e Z:\global\battest\%username%.txt "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook\Search\Catalog"
I get an output with lots of unnecessary data
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook\Search\Catalog]
"H:\\PST\\My Outlook Data File 1.pst"=hex:0c,01,00,00,00,00,00,00
"H:\\PST\\My Outlook Data File 2.pst"=hex:f8,00,00,00,00,00,00,00
"C:\\PST\\My Outlook Data File 3.pst"=hex:ac,02,00,00,00,00,00,00
This data is passed onto another program* so a work-around could be to use data within the "" marks however it also has the double backslashes which makes the data awkward to pass on.
Is there a better way to grab these values within CMD or perhaps a parameter which I've missed which just shows the directories?
-Sorry for not including this before however this program is not a CMD program, it's visual basic
While I don't have Office installed to test, this should get the work done
#echo off
setlocal enableextensions disabledelayedexpansion
set "HKCU=&H80000001"
set "subKey=software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook\Search\Catalog"
>> "Z:\global\pst\PowershellOutput\%username%.txt" (
for /f "tokens=2 delims={" %%a in ('
wmic
/NameSpace:\\root\default
Class StdRegProv
Call EnumValues
hDefKey^="%HKCU%"
sSubKeyName^="%subkey%"
2^>nul
^| find "sNames = {"
') do for %%b in (%%a) do (
for /f delims^=^" %%c in ("%%~b") do echo(%%~fc
)
)
It uses wmic to retrieve the list of values defined under the indicated key and filter the output to only retrieve the line with the names of those values in the form sNames = {"v1", "v2", "v3"}.
The { is used to separate the start of the line from the list of values (%%a) , and this list is iterated (%%b) to get each value. The last element in the list includes an ending } that needs to be removed, this is handled by %%c using the quotes in the value as delimiters.
The equivalent vbs version could be
Option Explicit
Const HKEY_CURRENT_USER = &H80000001
Const ForAppending = 8
Const SUB_KEY = "software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook\Search\Catalog"
Const OUTPUT_PATH = "Z:\global\pst\PowershellOutput"
Dim fso, shell
Set fso = WScript.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set shell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Dim values
Call GetObject( _
"winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\.\root\default:StdRegProv" _
).EnumValues( _
HKEY_CURRENT_USER, SUB_KEY, values _
)
Dim outputFile
Set outputFile = fso.OpenTextFile( _
fso.BuildPath( _
OUTPUT_PATH, shell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%username%") & ".txt" _
) _
, ForAppending _
, True _
)
Dim value
If Not IsNull(values) Then
For Each value In values
Call outputFile.WriteLine(fso.GetAbsolutePathName( value ))
Next
End If
Call outputFile.Close()
You would probably need to use the REG QUERY command. In a single bat file it would like like:
#echo OFF
for /f "usebackq tokens=1-3" %%A in (`REG QUERY "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook\Search\Catalog"`) do (
set ValueName=%%A
)
echo %ValueName% > Z:\global\battest\%username%.txt
Got this from How can I get the value of a registry key from within a batch script?
Here is a batch code to get the list of *.pst files (not directories) which work independent on number of *.pst files and their file names as long as the file names end with .pst.
#echo off
setlocal EnableExtensions EnableDelayedExpansion
for /F "skip=1 delims=" %%# in ('%SystemRoot%\System32\reg.exe query HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook\Search\Catalog 2^>nul') do (
set "RegData=%%#"
set "DelData=!RegData:*.pst=!"
if not "!DelData!" == "!RegData!" call :OutputFileName
)
endlocal
goto :EOF
:OutputFileName
set "RegData=!RegData:%DelData%=!"
echo !RegData:~4!
goto :EOF
*.pst files are Outlook Personal Storage files which are container files for emails, contacts, ...
The command FOR runs console application REG to query all values of registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook\Search\Catalog
The output on Windows Vista and later Windows versions is for the example:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook\Search\Catalog
H:\PST\My Outlook Data File 1.pst REG_SZ whatever the
H:\PST\My Outlook Data File 2.pst REG_SZ data value is
C:\PST\My Outlook Data File 3.pst REG_SZ of each value
There is output the registry key and next the registry values each indented with 4 spaces and with 4 spaces between value name and value type and 4 spaces between value type and data value.
But on Windows XP the output is for the example:
! REG.EXE VERSION 3.0
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook\Search\Catalog
H:\PST\My Outlook Data File 1.pst REG_SZ whatever the
H:\PST\My Outlook Data File 2.pst REG_SZ data value is
C:\PST\My Outlook Data File 3.pst REG_SZ of each value
So there are first two header lines before the registry key. The registry values are also indented with 4 spaces. But there are 1 or more tabs instead of spaces between the value name and the value type and there are also 1 or more tabs instead of spaces between value type and data value.
Note: I don't know if REG_SZ is the right registry value type. I don't have this registry key at all in my Windows registry and therefore just added the 3 registry values as string values with the dummy strings.
So the tricky part is how to get the registry value name containing also spaces to get just the name of the *.pst files independent on file name.
This is done by assigning each output line with the exception of first line because of skip=1 to environment variable RegData and get next from this line everything after .pst assigned to environment variable DelData.
If the line contains .pst in any case at all resulting in value of DelData being not equal value of RegData, the subroutine OutputFileName is called for further processing and printing the file name of the *.pst file.
In the subroutine OutputFileName first the string right of *.pst file name is removed from RegData using a string substitution. Next *.pst file name is output without the 4 indent spaces at beginning.
If the number of indent spaces would not be always exactly 4 spaces, the line echo !RegData:~4! could be replaced by following code to work independent on number of indent spaces/tabs.
for /F "tokens=1*" %%I in ("%RegData%") do (
if "%%J" == "" (
echo %%I
) else (
echo %%I %%J
)
)
The usage of REG instead of REGEDIT has the advantage that no elevated privileges of an administrator is necessary for running this batch code.
For understanding the used commands and how they work, open a command prompt window, execute there the following commands, and read entirely all help pages displayed for each command very carefully.
call /?
echo /?
for /?
goto /?
reg /?
reg query /?
set /?
setlocal /?
Nothing is output if the registry key does not exist. The error message output to handle STDERR is suppressed here by redirecting it with 2^>nul to device NUL. See the Microsoft article Using command redirection operators for details. The redirection operator > must be escaped here with caret character ^ to be interpreted as literal character on parsing the FOR command line and being interpreted as redirection operator on execution of the REG command line by FOR.
I wanna remove directories that their path listed in a txt file. some of these paths include space. for example this is my txt file contents, named rd.txt:
D:\New folder\WOW
D:\New folder (2)\here I am
so I can't use this command in batch file:
for /d %%n in (rd.txt) do rd "%%n" /s /q
what command should I use?
for /F "delims=" %%n in (rd.txt) do rd "%%n" /s /q
It does the job.
Long story short (you can use for /? to see the parameters), delims indicates what delimiters should be used, and default contains space character, so setting delims to empty value seems to be what you need.
#ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL EnableDelayedExpansion
REM Set variables
SET SOURCE=C:\My WebEx Recordings
SET DEST=\\XXXRD12\c$\WebExVideoArchive
SET 7ZIP=C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe
REM Compress local files with 7zip
ECHO ---------------------------------------------------------
ECHO BEGINNING VIDEO COMPRESSION OPERATIONS
ECHO ---------------------------------------------------------
CD /D "%SOURCE%"
FOR %%f in ("*.wrf") DO (
SET FILENAME=%%~nf
ECHO Compressing !FILENAME!
"!7ZIP!" a -t7z -aoa "!FILENAME!.7z" "%%f"
)
REM Copy compressed files
ECHO ---------------------------------------------------------
ECHO COMPRESSION COMPLETE - BEGINNING COPY OPERATIONS
ECHO ---------------------------------------------------------
REM XCOPY <source> <destination> <options>
XCOPY "%SOURCE%\*.7z" "%DEST%" /Y /V /I /R
REM Confirm successful copy, then delete originals
IF %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 (
ECHO Copy Operation Successful. Removing Originals...
DEL /Q "%SOURCE%\*.*"
)ELSE (
ECHO Error Detected During Copying. Please try again...Press Any Key to Exit
Pause
)
I am trying to edit this code to when we run the batch file it creates a folder based off the month of our file format. We ran this script a whole lot but forgot to make a folder called April now we have May mixed in with April.
The files are formatted like
Username-R705-2011.05.04-1601-Disconnected.7z
I was wondering if there is anyway it can go off the .04 and make a folder for that month so it will automatically put it in the folder it is needing to go into, so it will be easy to search for by month.
** would it be possible if we can not use the format that we format our files in to have it sort by file creation.
Erase everything below (and including) the line REM XCOPY <source> <destination> <options> and replace it with the following:
for /F "usebackq delims=" %%a in (`dir /b "%SOURCE%\*.7z"`) do (
SET CURRENT_FILE=%%a
REM Extract the month.
for /F "usebackq tokens=3 delims=-" %%i in ('!CURRENT_FILE!') do (
SET CURRENT_FILE_DATE=%%i
SET FILE_MONTH=!CURRENT_FILE_DATE:~-2!
SET MONTH_DEST=!DEST!\!FILE_MONTH!
)
XCOPY "%SOURCE%\!CURRENT_FILE!" "!MONTH_DEST!\" /Y /V /I /R
REM Confirm successful copy, then delete original
IF %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 (
ECHO Copy Operation Successful. Removing Original...
DEL /Q "%SOURCE%\!CURRENT_FILE!"
)ELSE (
ECHO Error while copying "%SOURCE%\!CURRENT_FILE!.
)
)
This code goes through every file matching %SOURCE%\*.7z, extracts the month, and then copies the file to %DEST%\<month>. Month is just the 2-digit number from the filename.
Seems like you have a folder full of files with different numeric-month values embedded in the filename. I was thinking of extracting that value from each file, but it would be more straightforward to use brute force wildcards with 12 different XCOPY commands:
XCOPY "%SOURCE%\*-*-20??.??.01-*.7z" "%DEST%\01" /Y /V /I /R
XCOPY "%SOURCE%\*-*-20??.??.02-*.7z" "%DEST%\02" /Y /V /I /R
[...]
XCOPY "%SOURCE%\*-*-20??.??.12-*.7z" "%DEST%\12" /Y /V /I /R
I may be misunderstanding the question but if you can make some assumptions about the filenames, this would work.
How do I launch Windows' RegEdit with certain path located, like "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0", so I don't have to do the clicking?
What's the command line argument to do this? Or is there a place to find the explanation of RegEdit's switches?
Use the following batch file (add to filename.bat):
REG ADD HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Regedit /v LastKey /t REG_SZ /d Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Veritas\NetBackup\CurrentVersion\Config /f
START regedit
to replace:
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Veritas\NetBackup\CurrentVersion\Config
with your registry path.
There's a program called RegJump, by Mark Russinovich, that does just what you want. It'll launch regedit and move it to the key you want from the command line.
RegJump uses (or at least used to) use the same regedit window on each invoke, so if you want multiple regedit sessions open, you'll still have to do things the old fashioned way for all but the one RegJump has adopted. A minor caveat, but one to keep note of, anyway.
From http://windowsxp.mvps.org/jumpreg.htm (I have not tried any of these):
When you start Regedit, it automatically opens the last key that was viewed. (Registry Editor in Windows XP saves the last viewed registry key in a separate location). If you wish to jump to a particular registry key directly without navigating the paths manually, you may use any of these methods / tools.
Option 1
Using a VBScript: Copy these lines to a Notepad document as save as registry.vbs
'Launches Registry Editor with the chosen branch open automatically
'Author : Ramesh Srinivasan
'Website: http://windowsxp.mvps.org
Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Dim MyKey
MyKey = Inputbox("Type the Registry path")
MyKey = "My Computer\" & MyKey
WshShell.RegWrite "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Regedit\Lastkey",MyKey,"REG_SZ"
WshShell.Run "regedit", 1,True
Set WshShell = Nothing
Double-click Registry.vbs and then type the full registry path which you want to open.
Example: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.MP3
Limitation: The above method does not help if Regedit is already open.
Note: For Windows 7, you need to replace the line MyKey = "My Computer\" & MyKey with MyKey = "Computer\" & MyKey (remove the string My). For a German Windows XP the string "My Computer\" must be replaced by "Arbeitsplatz\".
Option 2
Regjump from Sysinternals.com
This little command-line applet takes a registry path and makes Regedit open to that path. It accepts root keys in standard (e.g. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE) and abbreviated form (e.g. HKLM).
Usage: regjump [path]
Example: C:\Regjump HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.mp3
Option 3
12Ghosts JumpReg from 12ghosts.com
Jump to registry keys from a tray icon! This is a surprisingly useful tool. You can manage and directly jump to frequently accessed registry keys. Unlimited list size, jump to keys and values, get current key with one click, jump to key in clipboard, jump to same in key in HKCU or HKLM. Manage and sort keys with comments in an easy-to-use tray icon menu. Create shortcuts for registry keys.
I'd also like to note that you can view and edit the registry from within PowerShell. Launch it, and use set-location to open the registry location of your choice. The short name of an HKEY is used like a drive letter in the file system (so to go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software, you'd say: set-location hklm:\Software).
More details about managing the registry in PowerShell can be found by typing get-help Registry at the PowerShell command prompt.
Here is one more batch file solution with several enhancements in comparison to the other batch solutions posted here.
It sets also string value LastKey updated by Regedit itself on every exit to show after start the same key as on last exit.
#echo off
setlocal EnableExtensions DisableDelayedExpansion
set "RootName=Computer"
set "RegKey=%~1"
if defined RegKey goto PrepareKey
echo/
echo Please enter the path of the registry key to open.
echo/
set "RegKey="
set /P "RegKey=Key path: "
rem Exit batch file without starting Regedit if nothing entered by user.
if not defined RegKey goto EndBatch
:PrepareKey
rem Remove double quotes and square brackets from entered key path.
set "RegKey=%RegKey:"=%"
if not defined RegKey goto EndBatch
set "RegKey=%RegKey:[=%"
if not defined RegKey goto EndBatch
set "RegKey=%RegKey:]=%"
if not defined RegKey goto EndBatch
rem Replace hive name abbreviation by appropriate long name.
set "Abbreviation=%RegKey:~0,4%"
if /I "%Abbreviation%" == "HKCC" set "RegKey=HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG%RegKey:~4%" & goto GetRootName
if /I "%Abbreviation%" == "HKCR" set "RegKey=HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT%RegKey:~4%" & goto GetRootName
if /I "%Abbreviation%" == "HKCU" set "RegKey=HKEY_CURRENT_USER%RegKey:~4%" & goto GetRootName
if /I "%Abbreviation%" == "HKLM" set "RegKey=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE%RegKey:~4%" & goto GetRootName
if /I "%RegKey:~0,3%" == "HKU" set "RegKey=HKEY_USERS%RegKey:~3%"
:GetRootName
rem Try to determine automatically name of registry root.
if not exist %SystemRoot%\Sysnative\reg.exe (set "RegEXE=%SystemRoot%\System32\reg.exe") else set "RegEXE=%SystemRoot%\Sysnative\reg.exe"
for /F "skip=2 tokens=1,2*" %%K in ('%RegEXE% QUERY "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Regedit" /v "LastKey"') do if /I "%%K" == "LastKey" for /F "delims=\" %%N in ("%%M") do set "RootName=%%N"
rem Is Regedit already running?
%SystemRoot%\System32\tasklist.exe /NH /FI "IMAGENAME eq regedit.exe" | %SystemRoot%\System32\findstr.exe /B /I /L regedit.exe >nul || goto SetRegPath
echo/
echo Regedit is already running. Path can be set only when Regedit is not running.
echo/
set "UserChoice=N"
set /P "UserChoice=Terminate Regedit (y/N): "
if /I "%UserChoice:"=%" == "y" %SystemRoot%\System32\taskkill.exe /IM regedit.exe >nul 2>nul & goto SetRegPath
echo Switch to running instance of Regedit without setting entered path.
goto StartRegedit
:SetRegPath
rem Add this key as last key to registry for Regedit.
%RegEXE% ADD "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Regedit" /v "LastKey" /d "%RootName%\%RegKey%" /f >nul 2>nul
:StartRegedit
if not exist %SystemRoot%\Sysnative\cmd.exe (start %SystemRoot%\regedit.exe) else %SystemRoot%\Sysnative\cmd.exe /D /C start %SystemRoot%\regedit.exe
:EndBatch
endlocal
The enhancements are:
Registry path can be passed also as command line parameter to the batch script.
Registry path can be entered or pasted with or without surrounding double quotes.
Registry path can be entered or pasted or passed as parameter with or without surrounding square brackets.
Registry path can be entered or pasted or passed as parameter also with an abbreviated hive name (HKCC, HKCU, HKCR, HKLM, HKU).
Batch script checks for already running Regedit as registry key is not shown when starting Regedit while Regedit is already running. The batch user is asked if running instance should be terminated to restart it for showing entered registry path. If the batch user chooses not to terminate all instances of Regedit, Regedit is started without setting entered path resulting (usually) in just getting Regedit window to foreground.
The batch file tries to automatically get name of registry root which is on English Windows XP My Computer, on German Windows XP, Arbeitsplatz, and on Windows 7 and newer Windows just Computer. This could fail if the value LastKey of Regedit is missing or empty in registry. Please set the right root name in third line of the batch code for this case.
The batch file runs on 64-bit Windows always Regedit in 64-bit execution environment even on batch file being processed by 32-bit %SystemRoot%\SysWOW64\cmd.exe on 64-bit Windows which is important for registry keys affected by WOW64.
Copy the below text and save it as a batch file and run
#ECHO OFF
SET /P "showkey=Please enter the path of the registry key: "
REG ADD "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Regedit" /v "LastKey" /d "%showkey%" /f
start "" regedit
Input the path of the registry key you wish to open when the batch file prompts for it, and press Enter. Regedit opens to the key defined in that value.
I thought this C# solution might help:
By making use of an earlier suggestion, we can trick RegEdit into opening the key we want even though we can't pass the key as a parameter.
In this example, a menu option of "Registry Settings" opens RegEdit to the node for the program that called it.
Program's form:
private void registrySettingsToolStripMenuItem_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
string path = string.Format(#"Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\{0}\{1}\",
Application.CompanyName, Application.ProductName);
MyCommonFunctions.Registry.OpenToKey(path);
}
MyCommonFunctions.Registry
/// <summary>Opens RegEdit to the provided key
/// <para><example>#"Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\MyCompanyName\MyProgramName\"</example></para>
/// </summary>
/// <param name="FullKeyPath"></param>
public static void OpenToKey(string FullKeyPath)
{
RegistryKey rKey = Microsoft.Win32.Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey(#"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Regedit", true);
rKey.SetValue("LastKey",FullKeyPath);
Process.Start("regedit.exe");
}
Of course, you could put it all in one method of the form, but I like reusablity.
Here is a simple PowerShell function based off of this answer above https://stackoverflow.com/a/12516008/1179573
function jumpReg ($registryPath)
{
New-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Regedit" `
-Name "LastKey" `
-Value $registryPath `
-PropertyType String `
-Force
regedit
}
jumpReg ("Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run") | Out-Null
The answer above doesn't actually explain very well what it does. When you close RegEdit, it saves your last known position in HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Regedit, so this merely replaces the last known position with where you want to jump, then opens it.
Create a BAT file using clipboard.exe and regjump.exe
to jump to the key in the clipboard:
clipboard.exe > "%~dp0clipdata.txt"
set /p clipdata=input < "%~dp0clipdata.txt"
regjump.exe %clipdata%
( %~dp0 means "the path to the BAT file" )
Building on lionkingrafiki's answer, here's a more robust solution that will accept a reg key path as an argument and will automatically translate HKLM to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE or similar as needed. If no argument, the script checks the clipboard using the htmlfile COM object invoked by a JScript hybrid chimera. The copied data will be split and tokenized, so it doesn't matter if it's not trimmed or even among an entire paragraph of copied dirt. And finally, the key's existence is verified before LastKey is modified. Key paths containing spaces must be within double quotes.
#if (#CodeSection == #Batch) #then
:: regjump.bat
#echo off & setlocal & goto main
:usage
echo Usage:
echo * %~nx0 regkey
echo * %~nx0 with no args will search the clipboard for a reg key
goto :EOF
:main
rem // ensure variables are unset
for %%I in (hive query regpath) do set "%%I="
rem // if argument, try navigating to argument. Else find key in clipboard.
if not "%~1"=="" (set "query=%~1") else (
for /f "delims=" %%I in ('cscript /nologo /e:JScript "%~f0"') do (
set "query=%%~I"
)
)
if not defined query (
echo No registry key was found in the clipboard.
goto usage
)
rem // convert HKLM to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, etc. while checking key exists
for /f "delims=\" %%I in ('reg query "%query%" 2^>NUL') do (
set "hive=%%~I" & goto next
)
:next
if not defined hive (
echo %query% not found in the registry
goto usage
)
rem // normalize query, expanding HKLM, HKCU, etc.
for /f "tokens=1* delims=\" %%I in ("%query%") do set "regpath=%hive%\%%~J"
if "%regpath:~-1%"=="\" set "regpath=%regpath:~0,-1%"
rem // https://stackoverflow.com/a/22697203/1683264
>NUL 2>NUL (
REG ADD "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Regedit"^
/v "LastKey" /d "%regpath%" /f
)
echo %regpath%
start "" regedit
goto :EOF
#end // begin JScript hybrid chimera
// https://stackoverflow.com/a/15747067/1683264
var clip = WSH.CreateObject('htmlfile').parentWindow.clipboardData.getData('text');
clip.replace(/"[^"]+"|\S+/g, function($0) {
if (/^\"?(HK[CLU]|HKEY_)/i.test($0)) {
WSH.Echo($0);
WSH.Quit(0);
}
});
This seems horribly out of date, but Registration Info Editor (REGEDIT) Command-Line Switches claims that it doesn't support this.
You can make it appear like regedit does this behaviour by creating a batch file (from the submissions already given) but call it regedit.bat and put it in the C:\WINDOWS\system32 folder. (you may want it to skip editting the lastkey in the registry if no command line args are given, so "regedit" on its own works as regedit always did) Then "regedit HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0" will do what you want.
This uses the fact that the order in PATH is usually C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem; etc
If the main goal is just to avoid "the clicking", then in Windows 10 you can just type or paste the destination path into RegEdit's address bar and hit enter.
The Computer\ prefix here is added automatically. It will also work if you simply type or paste a path starting with e.g. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\....
PowerShell code:
# key you want to open
$regKey = "Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\IntuneManagementExtension\Policies\"
# set starting location for regedit
Set-ItemProperty "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Regedit" "LastKey" $regKey
# open regedit (-m allows multiple regedit windows)
regedit.exe -m
This is the best answer overall, as it's quick, simple and there's no need to install any program.
By Byron Persino, improved by Matt Miller. (Many thanks to both of them!)
I'm rewording more correctly and clearly to help other readers like me, as I had a lot of trouble getting it clear and make it working.
Make a .bat file, eg. 'GoToRegEditPath.bat' , write the following code inside and save it:
CODE:
#echo off
set /p regPath="Open regedit at path: "
REG ADD HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Regedit /v LastKey /t REG_SZ /d "%regPath%" /f
START regedit
exit
:: source:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/137182/how-to-launch-windows-regedit-with-certain-path?answertab=modifieddesc#tab-top
Maybe this .bat use must "Run as Administrator"
To use it, Just run it and paste (R-Click) in it the copied RegEdit Path.
Tip: if R-click does not work inside command prompt:
R-click on title bar > Properties > check both under "Edit Options"