Vista - Regedit restrictions

As a developer and tester I need to have full control over the registry on my
machine. For example if I am developing a USB device, I might have this
device detected and drivers installed, then I might want to completely remove
all traces of it to re-check that it installs properly on first install, or I
might want to change the properties of the device.
In Vista I cannot do this. In fact the permissions needed to delete registry
keys follow no rhyme or reason at all. In the HKLM/CCS/ENUM/USB tree, some
keys you can delete with no problem, some you have to take ownership of, and
some (especially the "properties" subkey of a device) you cant even read let
alone delete, and cannot take ownership of. What is going on here? How can I
test my devices properly if I can't back off vista without re-imaging?
Any spurious USB devices plugged in (including during debugging sessions)
will have a tree generated, which can never be deleted.
I am logged on as admin and have UAC disabled but my PC still does not do
what I want, I am it's slave!

AND??? Use Ghost.

"Andyww" <Andyww@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:50F6C7DE-585A-43DD-8F82-71614481E661@microsoft.com...
> As a developer and tester I need to have full control over the registry on
> my
> machine. For example if I am developing a USB device, I might have this
> device detected and drivers installed, then I might want to completely
> remove
> all traces of it to re-check that it installs properly on first install,
> or I
> might want to change the properties of the device.
> In Vista I cannot do this. In fact the permissions needed to delete
> registry
> keys follow no rhyme or reason at all. In the HKLM/CCS/ENUM/USB tree, some
> keys you can delete with no problem, some you have to take ownership of,
> and
> some (especially the "properties" subkey of a device) you cant even read
> let
> alone delete, and cannot take ownership of. What is going on here? How can
> I
> test my devices properly if I can't back off vista without re-imaging?
> Any spurious USB devices plugged in (including during debugging sessions)
> will have a tree generated, which can never be deleted.
> I am logged on as admin and have UAC disabled but my PC still does not do
> what I want, I am it's slave!

System restore??

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!



"Andyww" <Andyww@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:50F6C7DE-585A-43DD-8F82-71614481E661@microsoft.com...
> As a developer and tester I need to have full control over the registry on
> my
> machine. For example if I am developing a USB device, I might have this
> device detected and drivers installed, then I might want to completely
> remove
> all traces of it to re-check that it installs properly on first install,
> or I
> might want to change the properties of the device.
> In Vista I cannot do this. In fact the permissions needed to delete
> registry
> keys follow no rhyme or reason at all. In the HKLM/CCS/ENUM/USB tree, some
> keys you can delete with no problem, some you have to take ownership of,
> and
> some (especially the "properties" subkey of a device) you cant even read
> let
> alone delete, and cannot take ownership of. What is going on here? How can
> I
> test my devices properly if I can't back off vista without re-imaging?
> Any spurious USB devices plugged in (including during debugging sessions)
> will have a tree generated, which can never be deleted.
> I am logged on as admin and have UAC disabled but my PC still does not do
> what I want, I am it's slave!

Yeah, the permissions editor in regedit isn't the best.

I would suggest either making a program that correctly takes ownership and
changes security settings on a registry key and all descendents, or make a
system service that runs in the contexts of SYSTEM that allows you to delete
specified keys and all of their decendants.


--
- JB
Microsoft MVP - Windows Shell/User

Windows Vista Support Faq
http://www.jimmah.com/vista/