Editing Windows Registry Through Linux

There are many Windows/Linux dual booters out there that manage to somehow mess up the registry on their Windows partition (usually the case causing them to not be able to boot.) When this happens most users do not know where to turn other than to a Windows disc. BUT, there is a solution.


Windows stores registry files in the "C:\Windows\System32\config" directory. While there do not seem to be any Linux utilities to open/edit these hives, there is still a solution. Of course -- using 3rd party Windows registry viewers/editors through WINE. There are many 3rd party programs that work similar to regedit, usually only allowing you to view registry hives and export them to REGEDIT4 format (.reg files used to modify the registry.) An example of one of these would be Regworks. These programs can be used very easily to do many tasks.

For an example, you could use these programs to extract registry trees related to certain Windows programs that do not work quite correctly through WINE. For instance, Adobe Photoshop. At the moment WINE does not fully install this program, so in order to get it to work, you just need to export the HKLM\Software\Adobe tree into a .reg file and run it through WINE's regedit. As compared to guides out there about how to install Adobe Photoshop, this keeps you from needing to log onto Windows and extract it, then switch back to run. And no one's perfect. It's easy to mess that up or forget something and need to make multiple annoying trips back and forth.

There are many reasons why someone could need to edit their Windows registry from a Linux machine, and I hope this little trick will help someone out there solve a problem.


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