Comparing TWO .REG Files

Since these files can be opened as text files, rather large ones, there are a variety of solutions/assists available.

Here are but a few:

Microsoft Word has a Compare Documents feature. To activate it, open any document (we'll refer to it as DocA) in Word. Next, go to the Tools menu and select Compare from the Track Changes option. (See illustration) Navigate to the second document (DocB) and click the Open button. Presto-chango, Word displays a merged document with all differences marked in red, strike-out font.

As noted in the link below, which the quote came from, this can be a bit tedious to review, so the link gives you a vb script to ease things with.

http://www.swynk.com/friends/lesandrini/CompareDocs.asp

Here are a few programs that offer side by side visual comparison and selective print capabilities.

http://www.grigsoft.com/wincmp.htm

http://www.tucows.com/system/filecomp95.html

http://www.billssoftwarepicks.com/software/programming/utilities/Diff-n-Merge_Drasbek_Data.htm

others searchs for compare text  text comparison  compare two files would result in additional results.

Hope this helps
ITsy

Thanks ITsheresomewhere,

Yes you are write, these .REG Files can be opened as TEXT Files. But here the size if 15 MB and neither wordpar nor word is opening these. The PC gets hanged and I have to end task it.
The size is large so they are not opening, I think.

Any suggestions or clue for this. Or Directly .REG Files can be compared.

Best Regards
Sudhaom

well my first thought is that your memory, either ram or virtual is too small for the task.  Or that you need additional free disk space.

Word from ver 97 up can handle 32mb files.  If the memory is low or the disk space is too tight then it would either take a long time to open or might throw up.

That aside then I would suggest you look at a file splitter utility.  One that can cut a file into parts and then open and compare the parts to get to the overall view.

As in the file compare post, a search of your favorite shareware/freeware download site, google or www.mamma.com will result in a variety of programs that can do this.  Go for one that lets you define the file size and make the files say 5 mb each or less.  

However, keep in mind that since your doing a compare that things might not line up quite the same once split.

here are just a couple samples of splitters.

http://www.nehuenmultimedia.com.ar/html/splitter.html

http://www.softdd.com/filesplt/

http://www.tucows.com/system/preview/214476.html

go to www.tucows.com and search file splitter and it comes up with a variety of offerings  5 cows is best 4 cows is ok

Hope that helps.

ITsy

try regdiff

http://p-nand-q.com/tools/regdiff.htm

or maybe this,but I don't think its free
http://www.elcomsoft.com/art.html

I've no further help on comparing two REG file other than to note that I use the old, non-MS WinDiff for file comparisons.  Alas, it would be of little help here since it doesn't recognize UNICODE files.

However, should you ever again want to see how an install effects a box, I highly recommend:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,25214,00.asp


This utility takes configurable before and after snapshots and reports adds, changes and deletes to both files and the registry.

Norton System Works has a registry tracker.  I tried it once on my old system, but
didn't like it for some reason.  Probably too slow.  It is on this computer, too, but
I haven't tried it.  My guess is that it would be a memory hog to run.

Hello

Working on all possible ways.

I will be back with success/failure, give me few more time.

Best Regards
Sudhaom

Here's a simple program that can take before and after snapshots of your registry and compare them for you:

RegShot
http://regshot.ist.md/


And here's a program that can compare the actual .reg files.  If you have a Windows 98 CD, you can get it off of there as well (D:\Tools\Reskit\File\windiff.exe).

http://soft.ivanovo.ru/Win/WinDIFF/

Hello All,
Thanks Crash2100,
I have Winnt, and already Installed NT Resource Tools and checked that.
The main problem is every where mostly in every tool, experts have suggested above, the Editor such as notepad has to open .REG file for comparing and it is not able to do so and hangs, because the registry file is big around 15-2o MB, as u can see already discussed with ITsheresomewhere. File-Splitter will provide wrong results.

Snapshot-> I already have the .reg files and nothing else. So before and after snapshots, doesn't come into the picture.
Anyway I am going to arrange that application again from my head-office, Since I can see before and after snapshots is the only good and reliable ways to compare changes made to the registry after a software application is installed.

Which is the best for doing so.
Please suggest.

Best Regards
Sudhaom

Without you telling me details of the machine your trying to use I am running out of ideas.

You say NT but you don't say anything about the memory, the disk space, the application software, workstation or server.  Some details might give a clue as to what you might do next.

ITsy

Sorry ITsheresomewhere,
Doesn't mean that. I guess the PC is fine. that's why I didn't mention that. Anyway it is here for you

P-III 750 MHz, 256 MB Ram, 20 GB hard disk out of which 5 GB is empty in both C and D. It is Wiint Server 4.0 SP6, with minimal softwares installed. Virtual Memory, paging size(pagefile.sys) is 256 MB.
The Application software is A Small GDI Application made in VC++ 6.0 Complier, for which I am concerned.
As for, Softwares installed on the machine are, IIS+Proxy (no service is running though Right now), Visual Studio Complete, Sql Server, Msoffice and few others.

Is that ok ITsheresomewhere. Thanks.

Best Regards
Sudhaom

You might get additional ideas by posting a question in either the NT topic area or the Windows 2000 topic area.  Sometimes not all the Experts from there get over this way.

ITsy

Hello Experts,

ITsheresomewhere your Latest Link is not working,
http://www.softdepia.com/utilities_drivers/system_utilities/regbin.html

Anyway I am able to make out the difference, by making the regsitry file small-small of around 4 MB (getting each node of Registry To Different Filename in both Before and After My Application Software installation).

ITsheresomewhere, even then that 4 MB file was opened though in Word , but was not able to compare, it again Hangs on Comparing process. I don't know why ??

Anway you worked with the question a lot and because of your initial comments I got an Idea.
But The tool which I used was of vinnyd79, that is RegDiff.
Thanks to both of you.

I have increased the points and asked in the community support to divide the points between you two.

Thank you all, once again for your valued comments.

Best Regard
Sudhaom

Sudhaom

Hmmm - it works here but there is a pause, kinda slow loading up.  Glad you were able to outsmart the problem and get what you needed.  That's all that really counts.

Good luck
ITsy

sudhaom

I reduced the points to 75. You can now accept one experts comment as an answer and post another 75 point question ofr the other expert with a title "Points for xxx" and a body "For you rhelp in https://www.experts-exchange.com/jsp/qManageQuestion.jsp?ta=win98&qid=20318110 "

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