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Because the Windows registry is a hierarchy, the way regedit is laid out makes typical searches inefficient and slow.
Typically, when performing a search in regedit, you highlight the first line ('Computer') and then perform the search. But since some of the branches shown are really subbranches, certain large sections of the registry are searched more than once when this common strategy is used.
Thus, this typical method is not efficient due to some branches of the registry being searched more than one time.
Given that the standard technique is inefficient, what is a simple and fast strategy to fully search the registry, preferably using regedit?
RockPaperLizard
Posted 2014-10-26T03:36:38.403
Reputation: 5 415
I use 
Have you tried find/find next? It takes a moment, but it would avoid transversing the branches. – Journeyman Geek – 2014-10-26T04:01:13.753
I'm not clear exactly what you mean. When you perform the Find, it searches from the the current position, without any way to avoid searching some of the subbranches more than once (due to how regedit shows the hierarchy). – RockPaperLizard – 2014-10-26T04:05:00.263
2An upvote for you then, I also find this issue tremendously annoying, mainly when searching in HKEY_USERS when parts of it were already searched and are actually entries for HKEY_CURRENT_USER – Ryakna – 2014-10-26T04:13:50.250
Thanks for your understanding, Arakel. And thanks for having the knowledge and experience to understand this question and why it is important. – RockPaperLizard – 2014-10-26T04:30:52.977
2There are registry tools that assist in searching, one of them is called RegSeeker from hoverdesk. With disclaimer to be careful about install, and there are cleaning operations that can do some nice damage :-) One thing about it that assists most is it just creates a whole list of things matching the search term. so everything you have to deal with at the moment is in one list. Also you can select sections of the registry and be selective about data key and all just like the regedit. I am sure there are others out there, because I have use those too. it then links back to the actual regedit. – Psycogeek – 2014-10-26T08:41:35.103
4@RockPaperLizard it might be worth editing your question to include the fact that the duplicate searching is due to the fact that the registry hives are cross linked in the fashion that Arakel mentioned. As it stands I feel that this is a rather important clarification. – Mokubai – 2014-10-26T09:33:34.997
@Mokubai I agree. I need to think of the right words. I'm not sure if the right words are cross-linked, or subsets, or other words to accurate convey it. I'm open to all ideas. OTOH, someone with an answer will know exactly what we are all talking about :-) – RockPaperLizard – 2014-10-26T09:47:49.313
@RockPaperLizard It's not RegEdit but maybe the tool RegAlyzer is something for you? It supports RegEx and distinguishes between keys, values and data types (numeric, strings, binary)
– nixda – 2014-10-26T14:05:14.563I removed the downvote I issued. Yes; It was because I fear answers would lead to product recommendations without any sort of additional warning like registry tools are nothing but snake oil. – Ramhound – 2014-10-26T22:54:40.960
Does this link answer your question ? http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/finding-registry-keys-the-easy-way-in-vista-or-xp/
– user3025288 – 2014-10-30T12:47:07.613