you can only import binary registry files

Running in a command prompt window reg /? shows the available operations. Of course a write access to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE (short: HKLM) requires administrator privileges as also other not often used operations. The usage of REGEDIT requires always administrator privileges since Windows Vista even when just used to export keys into a registry file (read access) or when importing data from a registry file (write access) to HKEY_CURRENT_USER (short: HKCU).īy using REG many operations like QUERY (read access) or ADD (write access) to HKCU don't need administrator privileges. It is in general better to use REG instead of REGEDIT for getting (read access) or setting (write access) just a few keys or values in batch files.

On Windows 圆4 both exist as 32-bit and as 64-bit applications whereby the 32-bit versions access the registry like 32-bit applications which means registry redirector is active and registry keys for 64-bit applications are not visible for 32-bit REG and REGEDIT. There are used mainly two standard applications to process Windows registry from within a batch file:

You can only import binary registry files