WinReg

Table of Contents Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2. Background: What is the Windows Registry? Structure of the Windows Registry 3. The Problem with Sample Code: Lessons from PEP 514 4. Exploring the Registry: Exporting and Analysing Data Example: Analysing Exported Registry Files Example summary of my registry key statistics 5. Building a Better Registry Reader in Python Getting Keys and Values Traversing Subkeys via Recursion Printing Results Arguments with ArgParse Issues Found Final Tidy 6. Practical Example: Using the Script Command-line Examples Script Examples Example 1 Example 2 7. Key Takeaways Reading a Registry Value Writing to the Registry Deleting a Registry Key or Value 8. Try It Yourself Edits to this Post 1. Introduction Curiosity often leads to some of the most interesting projects. After reading about PEP 514 in the Astral UV documentation, I discovered that Python installations on Windows are registered in the Windows Registry. Intrigued, I tried the sample code from PEP 514, only to find it lacking. This post documents my journey to build a more robust, flexible Python script for reading Windows Registry values. I hope this will be useful to others. ...