How can I find out how to change a specific configuration through command lines.

rafaelsouzams · Mar 30, 2024

Hello everyone, everything good?
I was researching ways to automate my Windows configuration, so that when I run a BAT or PS1 file, it makes all the settings I like on my system.

I've already found several keys with the help of ChatGPT and Copilot, but there are several others that I can't find, that's when I found this forum and realized that this is a very frequent topic here, there are several posts teaching how to activate or deactivate something through the command.

So I wanted to know, how do you manage to find the commands to activate so many settings? Is there any tool capable of identifying where a registry key for a configuration is located?

For example, in Settings > Account > Sign-in Options, there is an option called "To increase security, only allow Windows Hello sign-in for Microsoft accounts on this device (Recommended)", and I would like to include disabling this option in my script.

This is just an example of something that I didn't find on the forum, but there are several other small settings that I would like to include in my script as well, so I would like to learn an efficient way of finding out how to activate or deactivate certain functions through a command line, instead of passing a list and hoping someone can answer them all.

It is possible?

pseymour · Mar 30, 2024

These settings changes are generally in the registry. A simple way to track them down is to use Nir's RegistryChangesView utility. You take a snapshot before changing the setting, change the setting, and then compare it with a snapshot taken afterward. The utility shows you everything that was changed between the two snapshots, and it will even export out to a .reg file.

Then, if you want it in PowerShell format, you could paste the desired registry entries into Registry to PowerShell converter.

Berton · Mar 30, 2024

And do keep in mind that Version Upgrades and Build updates to them may set everything back to an as-installed default, remove customizations, and get to do them anew. Also involved is whether things like in the old Control Panel may have been moved to Settings, usually affects how things are done to accomplish a task.

rafaelsouzams · Mar 30, 2024

Wow, that's exactly what I needed, thank you very much!
With this utility I was able to identify several keys! Thank you very much.

Taking advantage of the same key that I provided in my example, I was unable to identify it exactly with this app. He even showed some keys that could be related to the option of not requiring Windows Hello for login, but when manually changing the key in the registry editor to test, nothing happened.

Sorry for the trouble, but could anyone identify the correct key so I can change it using PowerShell?
I have been using the Set-ItemProperty -Path command to create my script, I will leave a list below with the keys that I found useful, in case anyone wants to use them too!