Copy registry branch to another location

Question

Is there an easy way in Windows to copy a registry branch to another part of the registry?

I need to copy everything in HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Python to HKCU\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Python to work around an issue with Python installers, but regedit doesn't appear to offer a way to copy a branch/folder. In this case, I'll probably solve the problem by copying each node by hand, since there isn't much to do, but I'm interested in a clean and easy solution for future reference.

Answer 1

You can use the reg command in Command Prompt. Note that administrator access is required to run this command. To open Command Prompt as Administrator:

1. Open the Start Menu.
2. In the search box, type cmd.
3. Press Ctrl+Shift+Enter.

The syntax of the reg command is below.

REG COPY KeyName1 KeyName2 [/s] [/f]

  KeyName    [\\Machine\]FullKey
    Machine  Name of remote machine - omitting defaults to the current machine.
             Only HKLM and HKU are available on remote machines.
    FullKey  ROOTKEY\SubKey
    ROOTKEY  [ HKLM | HKCU | HKCR | HKU | HKCC ]
    SubKey   The full name of a registry key under the selected ROOTKEY.

  /s         Copies all subkeys and values.

  /f         Forces the copy without prompt.

I've used this to copy keys between the 64-bit and 32-bit areas of the registry. For example:

reg copy HKLM\SOFTWARE\ODBC\ODBC.INI\dsname HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\ODBC\ODBC.INI\dsname /s

Answer 2

1. Use a better third party registry editor that allows cut/copy and paste of entire keys/branches.

2. Export the HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Python branch to a .REG file, use a text editor to replace all instances of HKLM with HKCU, save and import.

Answer 3

I am not sure why no one suggested this. I too had the same requirement.

Export the key top level. Edit it manually to change the base location and import it.