Manage the Windows registry
Hives are the main sections of the registry and all begin with the word HKEY.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
HKEY_CURRENT_USER
HKEY_USER
Keys are the folders in the registry. Keys can have many nested subkeys. Keys can have a value assigned to them under the (Default)
When passing a key on the CLI it must be quoted correctly depending on the
backslashes being used (\
vs \\
). The following are valid methods of
passing the the key on the CLI:
"SOFTWARE\Python"
'SOFTWARE\Python'
(will not work on a Windows Master)
SOFTWARE\\Python
Values or Entries are the name/data pairs beneath the keys and subkeys. All keys
have a default name/data pair. The name is (Default)
with a displayed value
of (value not set)
. The actual value is Null.
Example
The following example is an export from the Windows startup portion of the registry:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run]
"RTHDVCPL"="\"C:\\Program Files\\Realtek\\Audio\\HDA\\RtkNGUI64.exe\" -s"
"NvBackend"="\"C:\\Program Files (x86)\\NVIDIA Corporation\\Update Core\\NvBackend.exe\""
"BTMTrayAgent"="rundll32.exe \"C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Intel\\Bluetooth\\btmshellex.dll\",TrayApp"
In this example these are the values for each:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Run
RTHDVCPL
NvBackend
BTMTrayAgent
Each value name has a corresponding value
salt.utils.win_reg
salt.modules.reg.
broadcast_change
()¶Refresh the windows environment.
Note
This will only effect new processes and windows. Services will not see the change until the system restarts.
True if successful, otherwise False
CLI Example:
salt '*' reg.broadcast_change
salt.modules.reg.
delete_key_recursive
(hive, key, use_32bit_registry=False)¶New in version 2015.5.4.
Delete a registry key to include all subkeys and value/data pairs.
hive (str) --
The name of the hive. Can be one of the following
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE or HKLM
HKEY_CURRENT_USER or HKCU
HKEY_USER or HKU
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT or HKCR
HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG or HKCC
The key to remove (looks like a path)
Deletes the 32bit portion of the registry on 64bit installations. On 32bit machines this is ignored.
those that failed to delete.
CLI Example:
The following example will remove
delete_me
and all its subkeys from theSOFTWARE
key inHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
:salt '*' reg.delete_key_recursive HKLM SOFTWARE\\delete_me
salt.modules.reg.
delete_value
(hive, key, vname=None, use_32bit_registry=False)¶Delete a registry value entry or the default value for a key.
hive (str) --
The name of the hive. Can be one of the following
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE or HKLM
HKEY_CURRENT_USER or HKCU
HKEY_USER or HKU
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT or HKCR
HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG or HKCC
key (str) -- The key (looks like a path) to the value name.
vname (str) -- The value name. These are the individual name/data pairs under the key. If not passed, the key (Default) value will be deleted.
use_32bit_registry (bool) -- Deletes the 32bit portion of the registry on 64bit installations. On 32bit machines this is ignored.
True if successful, otherwise False
CLI Example:
salt '*' reg.delete_value HKEY_CURRENT_USER 'SOFTWARE\\Salt' 'version'
salt.modules.reg.
import_file
(source, use_32bit_registry=False)¶Import registry settings from a Windows REG
file by invoking REG.EXE
.
New in version 2018.3.0.
source (str) -- The full path of the REG
file. This can be either a local file
path or a URL type supported by salt (e.g. salt://salt_master_path
)
use_32bit_registry (bool) -- If the value of this parameter is True
then the REG
file
will be imported into the Windows 32 bit registry. Otherwise the
Windows 64 bit registry will be used.
True if successful, otherwise an error is raised
ValueError -- If the value of source
is an invalid path or otherwise
causes cp.cache_file
to return False
CommandExecutionError -- If reg.exe
exits with a non-0 exit code
CLI Example:
salt machine1 reg.import_file salt://win/printer_config/110_Canon/postinstall_config.reg
salt.modules.reg.
key_exists
(hive, key, use_32bit_registry=False)¶Check that the key is found in the registry. This refers to keys and not value/data pairs.
True if exists, otherwise False
CLI Example:
salt '*' reg.key_exists HKLM SOFTWARE\Microsoft
salt.modules.reg.
list_keys
(hive, key=None, use_32bit_registry=False)¶Enumerates the subkeys in a registry key or hive.
hive (str) --
The name of the hive. Can be one of the following:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE or HKLM
HKEY_CURRENT_USER or HKCU
HKEY_USER or HKU
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT or HKCR
HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG or HKCC
key (str) -- The key (looks like a path) to the value name. If a key is not passed, the keys under the hive will be returned.
use_32bit_registry (bool) -- Accesses the 32bit portion of the registry on 64 bit installations. On 32bit machines this is ignored.
A list of keys/subkeys under the hive or key.
CLI Example:
salt '*' reg.list_keys HKLM 'SOFTWARE'
salt.modules.reg.
list_values
(hive, key=None, use_32bit_registry=False)¶Enumerates the values in a registry key or hive.
Note
The (Default)
value will only be returned if it is set, otherwise it
will not be returned in the list of values.
hive (str) --
The name of the hive. Can be one of the following:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE or HKLM
HKEY_CURRENT_USER or HKCU
HKEY_USER or HKU
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT or HKCR
HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG or HKCC
key (str) -- The key (looks like a path) to the value name. If a key is not passed, the values under the hive will be returned.
use_32bit_registry (bool) -- Accesses the 32bit portion of the registry on 64 bit installations. On 32bit machines this is ignored.
A list of values under the hive or key.
CLI Example:
salt '*' reg.list_values HKLM 'SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Services\\Tcpip'
salt.modules.reg.
read_value
(hive, key, vname=None, use_32bit_registry=False)¶Reads a registry value entry or the default value for a key. To read the
default value, don't pass vname
hive (str) --
The name of the hive. Can be one of the following:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE or HKLM
HKEY_CURRENT_USER or HKCU
HKEY_USER or HKU
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT or HKCR
HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG or HKCC
key (str) -- The key (looks like a path) to the value name.
vname (str) -- The value name. These are the individual name/data pairs under the key. If not passed, the key (Default) value will be returned.
use_32bit_registry (bool) -- Accesses the 32bit portion of the registry on 64bit installations. On 32bit machines this is ignored.
A dictionary containing the passed settings as well as the value_data if successful. If unsuccessful, sets success to False.
bool: Returns False if the key is not found
If vname is not passed:
Returns the first unnamed value (Default) as a string.
Returns none if first unnamed value is empty.
CLI Example:
The following will get the value of the
version
value name in theHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Salt
keysalt '*' reg.read_value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE 'SOFTWARE\Salt' 'version'
CLI Example:
The following will get the default value of the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Salt
keysalt '*' reg.read_value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE 'SOFTWARE\Salt'
salt.modules.reg.
set_value
(hive, key, vname=None, vdata=None, vtype='REG_SZ', use_32bit_registry=False, volatile=False)¶Sets a value in the registry. If vname
is passed, it will be the value
for that value name, otherwise it will be the default value for the
specified key
hive (str) --
The name of the hive. Can be one of the following
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE or HKLM
HKEY_CURRENT_USER or HKCU
HKEY_USER or HKU
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT or HKCR
HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG or HKCC
key (str) -- The key (looks like a path) to the value name.
vname (str) -- The value name. These are the individual name/data pairs under the key. If not passed, the key (Default) value will be set.
vdata (str, int, list, bytes) --
The value you'd like to set. If a value name (vname) is passed, this will be the data for that value name. If not, this will be the (Default) value for the key.
The type of data this parameter expects is determined by the value
type specified in vtype
. The correspondence is as follows:
REG_BINARY: Binary data (str in Py2, bytes in Py3)
REG_DWORD: int
REG_EXPAND_SZ: str
REG_MULTI_SZ: list of str
REG_QWORD: int
REG_SZ: str
Note
When setting REG_BINARY, string data will be converted to binary.
Note
The type for the (Default) value is always REG_SZ and cannot be changed.
Note
This parameter is optional. If vdata
is not passed, the Key
will be created with no associated item/value pairs.
vtype (str) -- The value type. The possible values of the vtype parameter are indicated above in the description of the vdata parameter.
use_32bit_registry (bool) -- Sets the 32bit portion of the registry on 64bit installations. On 32bit machines this is ignored.
volatile (bool) -- When this parameter has a value of True, the registry key will be made volatile (i.e. it will not persist beyond a system reset or shutdown). This parameter only has an effect when a key is being created and at no other time.
True if successful, otherwise False
CLI Example:
This will set the version value to 2015.5.2 in the SOFTWARESalt key in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE hive
salt '*' reg.set_value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE 'SOFTWARE\Salt' 'version' '2015.5.2'
CLI Example:
This function is strict about the type of vdata. For instance this example will fail because vtype has a value of REG_SZ and vdata has a type of int (as opposed to str as expected).
salt '*' reg.set_value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE 'SOFTWARE\Salt' 'str_data' 1.2
CLI Example:
In this next example vdata is properly quoted and should succeed.
salt '*' reg.set_value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE 'SOFTWARE\Salt' 'str_data' vtype=REG_SZ vdata="'1.2'"
CLI Example:
This is an example of using vtype REG_BINARY.
salt '*' reg.set_value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE 'SOFTWARE\Salt' 'bin_data' vtype=REG_BINARY vdata='Salty Data'
CLI Example:
An example of using vtype REG_MULTI_SZ is as follows:
salt '*' reg.set_value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE 'SOFTWARE\Salt' 'list_data' vtype=REG_MULTI_SZ vdata='["Salt", "is", "great"]'
salt.modules.reg.
value_exists
(hive, key, vname, use_32bit_registry=False)¶Check that the value/data pair is found in the registry.
New in version 3000.
True if exists, otherwise False
CLI Example:
salt '*' reg.value_exists HKLM SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion CommonFilesDir