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#1
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comment inside a reg key's string value?
Hello,
I am using a string value in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Run to control whether a program starts at boot. Is it possible and safe to comment the value data in and out, e.g. to have "C:\Path\program.exe" as the data, and then, when not wanting the program to start at next boot, putting in a ";", i.e. changing the date to ;"C:\Path\program.exe" ? Or maybe there is a better way to do this, requiring equally little typing? Thanks in advance! Harry |
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#2
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comment inside a reg key's string value?
"Harry Davis" wrote:
I am using a string value in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Run to control whether a program starts at boot. Is it possible and safe to comment the value data in and out, e.g. to have "C:\Path\program.exe" as the data, and then, when not wanting the program to start at next boot, putting in a ";", i.e. changing the date to ;"C:\Path\program.exe" ? Or maybe there is a better way to do this, requiring equally little typing? Why not just use the msconfig.exe utility already provided in Windows to enable/disable startup items? |
#3
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comment inside a reg key's string value?
VanguardLH wrote in :
"Harry Davis" wrote: I am using a string value in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Run to control whether a program starts at boot. Is it possible and safe to comment the value data in and out, e.g. to have "C:\Path\program.exe" as the data, and then, when not wanting the program to start at next boot, putting in a ";", i.e. changing the date to ;"C:\Path\program.exe" ? Or maybe there is a better way to do this, requiring equally little typing? Why not just use the msconfig.exe utility already provided in Windows to enable/disable startup items? Thanks for this suggestion, which I may use. For the record, typing "-", without the inverted commas, before the path in the value data seems to disable the program from starting at boot. Curiously, when it does that, the program still shows up as enabled in msconfig. Harry |
#4
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comment inside a reg key's string value?
From: "Harry Davis"
VanguardLH wrote in : "Harry Davis" wrote: I am using a string value in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Run to control whether a program starts at boot. Is it possible and safe to comment the value data in and out, e.g. to have "C:\Path\program.exe" as the data, and then, when not wanting the program to start at next boot, putting in a ";", i.e. changing the date to ;"C:\Path\program.exe" ? Or maybe there is a better way to do this, requiring equally little typing? Why not just use the msconfig.exe utility already provided in Windows to enable/disable startup items? Thanks for this suggestion, which I may use. For the record, typing "-", without the inverted commas, before the path in the value data seems to disable the program from starting at boot. Curiously, when it does that, the program still shows up as enabled in msconfig. Harry That's because you are introducing a syntax error where the FQNP is not interpreted and the file is subsequently not executed. To MSCONFIG nothing has changed. All you have done is introduce a bug the blocks an entry's execution. In effect, you are mucking with the Registry and this is contraindicated. If you don't know and fully understand what you are doing in the Registry then you should not be modifying it. -- Dave Multi-AV Scanning Tool - http://multi-av.thespykiller.co.uk http://www.pctipp.ch/downloads/dl/35905.asp |
#5
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comment inside a reg key's string value?
"David H. Lipman" wrote in
: From: "Harry Davis" VanguardLH wrote in : "Harry Davis" wrote: I am using a string value in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Run to control whether a program starts at boot. Is it possible and safe to comment the value data in and out, e.g. to have "C:\Path\program.exe" as the data, and then, when not wanting the program to start at next boot, putting in a ";", i.e. changing the date to ;"C:\Path\program.exe" ? Or maybe there is a better way to do this, requiring equally little typing? Why not just use the msconfig.exe utility already provided in Windows to enable/disable startup items? Thanks for this suggestion, which I may use. For the record, typing "-", without the inverted commas, before the path in the value data seems to disable the program from starting at boot. Curiously, when it does that, the program still shows up as enabled in msconfig. That's because you are introducing a syntax error where the FQNP is not interpreted and the file is subsequently not executed. To MSCONFIG nothing has changed. All you have done is introduce a bug the blocks an entry's execution. In effect, you are mucking with the Registry and this is contraindicated. If you don't know and fully understand what you are doing in the Registry then you should not be modifying it. Thanks for this. Isn't one person's commenting out, which achieves the desired goal and doesn't have any ill effects, another person's syntax error here, though? It seems standard to put "-" in the value data, so presumably nothing after the "-" is looked at? I.e. straightforward commenting out? I should be congratulated for working this one out, surely? :-) Harry |
#6
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comment inside a reg key's string value?
From: "Harry Davis"
That's because you are introducing a syntax error where the FQNP is not interpreted and the file is subsequently not executed. To MSCONFIG nothing has changed. All you have done is introduce a bug the blocks an entry's execution. In effect, you are mucking with the Registry and this is contraindicated. If you don't know and fully understand what you are doing in the Registry then you should not be modifying it. Thanks for this. Isn't one person's commenting out, which achieves the desired goal and doesn't have any ill effects, another person's syntax error here, though? It seems standard to put "-" in the value data, so presumably nothing after the "-" is looked at? I.e. straightforward commenting out? I should be congratulated for working this one out, surely? :-) Harry No. You should not be congratulated for "mucking" with the Registry and you have not commenting out the string. A string that is identified to be a comment is ignored and is only meant for human interpretation. A string with a syntax error is interpreted by the OS but fails to work as expected because of the introduced error. Editing the Registry to achieve such actions can and may lead to unintended, negative, consequences. -- Dave Multi-AV Scanning Tool - http://multi-av.thespykiller.co.uk http://www.pctipp.ch/downloads/dl/35905.asp |
#7
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comment inside a reg key's string value?
"Harry Davis" wrote:
VanguardLH wrote in : "Harry Davis" wrote: I am using a string value in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Run to control whether a program starts at boot. Is it possible and safe to comment the value data in and out, e.g. to have "C:\Path\program.exe" as the data, and then, when not wanting the program to start at next boot, putting in a ";", i.e. changing the date to ;"C:\Path\program.exe" ? Or maybe there is a better way to do this, requiring equally little typing? Why not just use the msconfig.exe utility already provided in Windows to enable/disable startup items? Thanks for this suggestion, which I may use. For the record, typing "-", without the inverted commas, before the path in the value data seems to disable the program from starting at boot. Curiously, when it does that, the program still shows up as enabled in msconfig. msconfig, SysInternal's AutoRuns, and other similar utilities that "disable" items do so by MOVING them out of the normal startup location and hiding them in a storage key reserved by the utility to hold the old entries. When you disable, you MOVE the startup item to this holding area. When you later re-enable an item, you MOVE it from the holding area back to its normal startup location. Only if you use the config utility to delete a startup item (not available in msconfig) does the item actually wholly disappear from the registry. Anything that makes impossible finding the target of a startup item will work, as you've noticed. You could rename the folder where resides the executable file. You could rename file.exe to file.exx in the startup item. You could change "C:\file.exe" to "?:\file.exe". You are introducing an error in the parser that tries to determine what to run (which is the executable and which are parameters to the program). Have you tried rebooting Windows to ensure that you don't get some popup telling you that the startup item could not be found? Or some mysterious instance of Windows Explorer loads when you login? Stick with moving out the items you want to disable (and moving them back when you want to re-enable), like using msconfig, AutoRuns, or another startup tweaker. |
#8
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comment inside a reg key's string value?
"Harry Davis" wrote in message
... Thanks for this. Isn't one person's commenting out, which achieves the desired goal and doesn't have any ill effects, another person's syntax error here, though? It seems standard to put "-" in the value data, so presumably nothing after the "-" is looked at? I.e. straightforward commenting out? I should be congratulated for working this one out, surely? :-) LOL.... you haven't "discovered" anything new. Using the "-" has been a standard since it was "discovered" nearly 15 years ago, and has been documented ever since. Congratulations on stumbling upon something you could have learned through a web search much faster! ;-) -- Glen Ventura MS MVP Oct. 2002 - Sept. 2009 CompTIA A+ |
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