Windows Vista™ Inside Out

Monitoring Registry Changes

Sometimes it can be useful to monitor the changes that take place in your registry—particularly the changes that occur as the result of installing a new program or device. Windows Vista does not provide a registry monitoring tool, unfortunately. Using native Windows tools, the best you can do is employ the venerable command-line program Fc.exe to compare registry export files that you create before and after an important registry change. Export a .txt file or .reg file from the branch of the registry that you expect to change (or the entire registry if you’re not sure), install the program or driver (or do whatever it is whose registry effects you want to monitor), repeat the export process (using a different file name), ...