Regshot real value in identifying registry entry changes?

I have 3 daily use systems and 3 other systems, all running now or soon to be running Win 11. Since I am somewhat OCD about consistent UI, configs, etc., I thought that using regshot to capture reg changes just once would allow me to easily apply those same changes to the other 5 systems with just my own PowerShell script. Trying to match up 5 other systems with my daily use desktop is too complicated, especially since my wife's requirements are somewhat different from mine.

But after using Regshot for a few simple desktop changes, I'm not so sure. To be clear I am a noob about capturing reg changes and about the registry in general. I do rely on reg changes made by programs like WinAero as well as patch scripts and tutorials on this website. For instance, I created desktop shortcuts for drives C-F,(which I have on all systems., plus Excel and But instead, I had assumed that I would get a compare txt file which I could convert to a reg file of something like 6+ entries. regshot's compare of the 1st Shot and the 2nd Shot procuced a text file over over 350 MB and over 1,175,000 lines 1116155 total changes. I am not making this up.

I was pretty careful to do nothing else but create the desktop shortcuts between the 2 regshot Shots. What do people think is going on with the registry? Is there a better way to capture "spot" changes to a system?

A large part of the problem is that a lot of processes are running all the time, and a lot of those are also writing to the registry while you're making the changes you want to capture.

If you know the setting is user-specific, then you can limit comparisons to just HKEY_CURRENT_USER. That will ignore changes in other hives and result in a much smaller list to check. I'm not sure if regshot supports this, but most utilities of its kind do.

Also, if you're monitoring a specific app's registry changes, you can use something like RegFromApp, that monitors the changes made only by a specific app.


If regshot doesn't allow you to limit which hives it monitors as I said above, Nir has another utility that will let you do that for sure.

The best and only solution is to quickly take before & after snapshots to minimize the "background noise". Windows writes to the registry for its own overhead needs, and even tracks your activity while you're using apps.

1. Open the settings dialog or tool to the appropriate section. If you have an option to hit "OK" or "Apply", take advantage of everything you can do short of approving the change.

2. Run your reg comparison tool. Take a snapshot.

3. As quickly as you can, hit "OK" or "Apply" to have the pending changes applied.

4. Run your reg tool again. Take another snapshot, or do a comparison.

By minimizing the delay between the two snapshots, you will lessen the volume of "junk" reg entries. After a while, you'll learn to recognize which changes are just background noise. A general rule is the longer and more obtuse a registry change looks (random hex digits), it's less likely what you're interested in.

x509 said:

I thought that using regshot to capture reg changes just once would allow me to easily apply those same changes to the other 5 systems with just my own PowerShell script.

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Up and running machines are all different; different user accounts, different OS versions (Home vs Pro). Every little thing previously done affects each machine's working registry. If you want all your machines the same, imaging is the only way to do it. Even then you will run into issues if the machine you made the image from has licensed software. Possible windows license too. What you are trying to do with regshot will end up with you in a world of hurt.

Honest opinion and without intention of being discriminative or nasty; You would have more luck and less stress, dealing with whatever OCD it is you have that makes you feel the need to trace or control a registry that constantly changes.

antspants said:

Honest opinion and without intention of being discriminative or nasty; You would have more luck and less stress, dealing with whatever OCD

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I meant that as humor.

antspants said:

it is you have that makes you feel the need to trace or control a registry that constantly changes.

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I was wondering if it was possible to use tools that allow me to create my own reg patches. That's all. Same thing that lots of other folks, here and elsewhere, already do.

x509 said:

I meant that as humor

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Oh, OK fair enough. Hard to discriminate between a joke and fact with something like the mention of OCD, so many have it in some shape or form. But sure

antspants said:

Oh, OK fair enough. Hard to discriminate between a joke and fact with something like the mention of OCD, so many have it in some shape or form. But sure

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OK. Now that we have cleared all that up, what's the next step here?

x509 said:

OK. Now that we have cleared all that up, what's the next step here?

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Taking garlins and psemours advice. They’re two people I’d follow advice from in this forum without much question.

x509 said:

OK. Now that we have cleared all that up, what's the next step here?

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You can use Sysinternals Process Monitor to track changes made during a process and can filter it to reg changes specifically if that works any better for your needs