Check if a Registry Path Exists in Remote Machine - powershell

Question

I have used Power Shell to check if a path exists using this command . powershell test-path "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows" now how can the same be extended to remote machine. What is the syntax if i want to test a registry path in Remote machine, i tried powershell test-path "\\machinename\HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows" and its not working. Suggest some way to test it.

Answer 1

You can access it as outlined here: http://powershell.com/cs/blogs/tips/archive/2011/02/15/accessing-registry-remote.aspx
$reg = [Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey]::OpenRemoteBaseKey('LocalMachine', 'server123')
$key = $reg.OpenSubKey('SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall')
$key.GetSubKeyNames() | ForEach-Object {
$subkey = $key.OpenSubKey($_)
$i = #{}
$i.Name = $subkey.GetValue('DisplayName')
$i.Version = $subkey.GetValue('DisplayVersion')
New-Object PSObject -Property $i
$subkey.Close()
}
$key.Close()
$reg.Close()
An alternative is to enable PSRemoting and use invoke-command on the remote machine and effectively run the same command as what you would run on the local box.

Answer 2

You cannot connect to the current user hive of a remote computer. Here's an example of using the Remote Regitry module to check if a remote key exists in the hklm hive of a remote server. The module can be found on codeplex: psremoteregistry.codeplex.con
Test-RegKey -ComputerName server1 -Key software\microsoft\winows -Hive LocalNachine

Answer 3

This site helped me. The code basically checks for one key and then checks for another one if the first one does not exist. It also verifies that the subkey exists before trying to read a value from it. If neither exist a try / catch can help deal with that.
$reg = [Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey]::OpenRemoteBaseKey('LocalMachine', $computerName)
$regkey = $reg.OpenSubkey("SOFTWARE\\Symantec\\Symantec Endpoint Protection\\AV\\Storages\\Filesystem\\RealTimeScan")
if(-not $regkey) {
$regkey = $reg.OpenSubkey("SOFTWARE\\Wow6432Node\\Symantec\\Symantec Endpoint Protection\\AV\\Storages\\Filesystem\\RealTimeScan")
}
$autoProtectStatus = ""
$null = ""
if ($regkey.GetValue("OnOff", $null) -ne $null) {
$autoProtectStatus = $regkey.GetValue("OnOff")
}
if ($autoProtectStatus -eq 1) {
$autoProtectStatus = "Protection On"
} elseif ($autoProtectStatus -eq 0) {
$autoProtectStatus = "Protection Off"
} else {
$autoProtectStatus = "Unknown State"
}

Answer 4

So much of the Q&A is 3 years old or older. I suspect the newer versions of Powershell must have cleaned up a lot of this. Having said that, there is still not a direct command to check the registry on a remote computer (to the best of my knowledge). This works - it checks if .NET 4.6.2 is installed (is it simpler than the other answers though?)
invoke-command -computername <NetBiosName> -scriptblock {test-path -Path
"HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\.NetFramework\v4.0.30319\SKUs\.NetFramework,
Version=v4.6.2"}
You can also put the scriptblock content into a *.ps1 file (everything inside the {} and then invoke it with: Invoke-Command -ComputerName NetBiosName -FilePath "FQLP"