Comparing Registries

While working with changes to your system, you might want to see what is changing in your Registry. Since you can export it to a text file, the steps are fairly easy:

> Start Regedit
> With the very top level select - My Computer, on the Toolbar select Registry / Export Registry File
> I usually save it to the root of the C: drive with the name before (you don't need to add an extension)
> Make the change to your system
> Go back to Regedit
> Press F5 to update it
> Export the Registry like step 2
> Name the file after and have it go in the same directory
> Open up a DOS window
> Go to the directory where the two exported files are
> Enter FC before.reg after.reg > diff.txt
> Then you can edit diff.txt with your favorite text editor.

Note: I do the last steps so often, I have a simple batch file already set up.