Monday, January 27, 2003
Review of PHM Registry Editor v0.70
Posted by Dave Beauvais in "SOFTWARE" @ 09:00 AM
While not necessary for the average user, a registry editor utility is one of those “must-have” applications for the power user. Like their desktop counterparts, Pocket PC registry editors allow users to dig into the guts of their Pocket PC to tweak settings, improve performance, or remove the leftovers from an uninstalled application. Unlike their desktop operating systems, Microsoft decided not to include a registry editing utility with their Windows CE-based operating systems, leaving the market wide open to third-party software developers. There are several registry editors available, but one of the best is a free one called PHM Registry Editor by developer Philippe Majerus. If this sounds like it might be of interest to you, read the rest of this review!
While not necessary for the average user, a registry editor utility is one of those “must-have” applications for the power user. Like their desktop counterparts, Pocket PC registry editors allow users to dig into the guts of their Pocket PC to tweak settings, improve performance, or remove the leftovers from an uninstalled application. Unlike their desktop operating systems, Microsoft decided not to include a registry editing utility with their Windows CE-based operating systems, leaving the market wide open to third-party software developers. There are several registry editors available, but one of the best is a free one called PHM Registry Editor by developer Philippe Majerus.
A Truly Multi-platform Application
Philippe is the only software developer I’m aware of to make a registry editor available for every major Windows CE-based handheld device – even including the SmartPhone! PHM RegEdit v0.70 is available for Palm-size PCs, Handheld PCs and of course Pocket PC 2000 & 2002. This review will focus only on the Pocket PC version of the software.
This Seems Familiar Somehow...
If you have ever used a desktop PC-based registry editor, when you first start PHM RegEdit, things will look very familiar to you. Windows CE’s registry has the same HKey_Classes_Root, HKey_Current_User, and HKey_Local_Machine branches as the desktop versions of Windows, and the subkeys of each are organized in much the same way.
Figure 1: Home screen of PHM RegEdit the first time you run it.
Easy to Use Yet Powerful
Philippe Majerus went to great lengths to make PHM RegEdit easy to use on the Pocket PC. The program’s interface makes very good use of the somewhat limited screen space of the Pocket PC; the interface is very simple, yet still powerful.
Figure 2: A sample screen with the registry tree and values for the selected subkey.
The default interface consists of a two-paned display with the registry key tree pane on top and the data/value pane below it. There are also a menu bar and a status bar which shows the current location within the registry tree. The data pane column headers and the status bar can be turned on or off as needed to make more room for one or two more lines of data to be displayed. Additionally, using the “Switch View” button, you can show just the tree, just the values, or both as shown in Figures 3 through 5.
Figure 3: The Switch View button.
Figure 4: Registry keys only.
Figure 5: Values only for the selected key.
Navigating the Registry
Moving around the Pocket PC registry is simple with PHM RegEdit. Since it’s organized into an expanding tree, you can expand and collapse keys by tapping the tiny + and - symbols next to each key. You can also use your jog dial or directional pad to move up and down. You can expand and contract segments of the tree with the right and left d-pad buttons, respectively.
To speed access to commonly-used sections of the registry, PHM RegEdit has a “Favorites” list. (See Figure 6 below) The Windows 2000 and Windows XP versions of Microsoft’s RegEdit have a similar feature. Tapping an item in the Favorites list takes you directly to that location in the registry. The PHM RegEdit Favorites list comes pre-populated with several important sections of the registry, but users can quickly add their own locations by using the Add/Remove tab of the Favorites dialog. The currently-selected registry key is filled in for you and you can change the description if you like.
Figure 6: The Favorites list.
Okay, so you can get around the registry and find the things you want to change now. What do you do if you don’t know where the value you want to change is located? Well for that, PHM RegEdit includes a Find feature on the Tools menu. You enter the string you want to search for and tell it whether you want to search through keys, values, data, or any combination thereof.
Figure 7: The search dialog.
Editing the Registry
Any registry editor would be pretty useless without the ability to make changes or additions to the registry. Of course PHM RegEdit allows you to do this. To edit existing data within a key, simply tap it once, make your modifications in the dialog, and tap OK. Changes are saved to the registry immediately, although depending on what you changed, you may need to soft reset for the change to take effect. To delete anything, tap and hold the item you wish to delete and select “Delete” from the pop-up menu. You will be presented with a dialog box asking you to confirm the deletion. Note that deleting a key deletes all subkeys and data from that point down, so be careful with that stylus!
You can create new keys or values by tapping the Edit menu and selecting what you want to create. (I would probably have called this menu “New” instead of “Edit” since the only items in the menu allow you to create new entries.) You can create new keys, strings, binary values, DWORD values, multi-string values, and expandable string values. (Not being a developer myself, I have no idea what an expandable string does. :))
Backing Up and Restoring the Registry
One of the first things every tech site will tell you to do before giving you a registry or system tweak is to make a backup of your registry or your entire system before proceeding. PHM RegEdit provides a quick and easy way to back up your Pocket PC’s registry to a file, and restore the entire registry at a later date. Simply go to the Tools menu, select Backup, name your file, decide where to save it, and tap OK. Restoring is as simple as tapping Tools, Restore, selecting your backup file, and tapping OK.
While the full registry backup could be good for fixing major editing mistakes, if you’re just modifying a single key, there’s usually no reason to back up the entire registry. Instead, you could just export the key you’re about to change. To do this, you tap and hold on the key you want to export and select “Export...” from the pop-up menu. Name your file, and tap OK. Everything within that key and any subkeys is then exported to a file.
Figure 8: Exporting a key.
Gotchas
Here is where you may notice a glaring omission from this version of PHM RegEdit. You can export as many keys as you'd like, but you currently cannot import them back in! The good news here is that the release notes for this version state that the Import feature will be available in the next release of PHM RegEdit.
Where To Buy
PHM RegEdit and all of Philippe’s other Windows CE software is available for free download from his Web site. Just select the type of device you have from that page and download it. This page also has some of the author's own screenshots which may be of interest.
Conclusions
Aside from the missing Import feature, I really have nothing negative to say about this software. PHM RegEdit is a very powerful utility for viewing and editing the Pocket PC (or other Windows CE-based OS) registry. The lack of the Import feature to merge exported keys is a major drawback of this version of the utility, but the rest of the features more than make up for this temporary omission, in this reviewer’s opinion. Once that feature is added in the next release, PHM Registry Editor could very well be the ultimate registry editing utility. It definitely deserves a place in every geek’s box of tricks!
While not necessary for the average user, a registry editor utility is one of those “must-have” applications for the power user. Like their desktop counterparts, Pocket PC registry editors allow users to dig into the guts of their Pocket PC to tweak settings, improve performance, or remove the leftovers from an uninstalled application. Unlike their desktop operating systems, Microsoft decided not to include a registry editing utility with their Windows CE-based operating systems, leaving the market wide open to third-party software developers. There are several registry editors available, but one of the best is a free one called PHM Registry Editor by developer Philippe Majerus.
A Truly Multi-platform Application
Philippe is the only software developer I’m aware of to make a registry editor available for every major Windows CE-based handheld device – even including the SmartPhone! PHM RegEdit v0.70 is available for Palm-size PCs, Handheld PCs and of course Pocket PC 2000 & 2002. This review will focus only on the Pocket PC version of the software.
This Seems Familiar Somehow...
If you have ever used a desktop PC-based registry editor, when you first start PHM RegEdit, things will look very familiar to you. Windows CE’s registry has the same HKey_Classes_Root, HKey_Current_User, and HKey_Local_Machine branches as the desktop versions of Windows, and the subkeys of each are organized in much the same way.
Figure 1: Home screen of PHM RegEdit the first time you run it.
Easy to Use Yet Powerful
Philippe Majerus went to great lengths to make PHM RegEdit easy to use on the Pocket PC. The program’s interface makes very good use of the somewhat limited screen space of the Pocket PC; the interface is very simple, yet still powerful.
Figure 2: A sample screen with the registry tree and values for the selected subkey.
The default interface consists of a two-paned display with the registry key tree pane on top and the data/value pane below it. There are also a menu bar and a status bar which shows the current location within the registry tree. The data pane column headers and the status bar can be turned on or off as needed to make more room for one or two more lines of data to be displayed. Additionally, using the “Switch View” button, you can show just the tree, just the values, or both as shown in Figures 3 through 5.
Figure 3: The Switch View button.
Figure 4: Registry keys only.
Figure 5: Values only for the selected key.
Navigating the Registry
Moving around the Pocket PC registry is simple with PHM RegEdit. Since it’s organized into an expanding tree, you can expand and collapse keys by tapping the tiny + and - symbols next to each key. You can also use your jog dial or directional pad to move up and down. You can expand and contract segments of the tree with the right and left d-pad buttons, respectively.
To speed access to commonly-used sections of the registry, PHM RegEdit has a “Favorites” list. (See Figure 6 below) The Windows 2000 and Windows XP versions of Microsoft’s RegEdit have a similar feature. Tapping an item in the Favorites list takes you directly to that location in the registry. The PHM RegEdit Favorites list comes pre-populated with several important sections of the registry, but users can quickly add their own locations by using the Add/Remove tab of the Favorites dialog. The currently-selected registry key is filled in for you and you can change the description if you like.
Figure 6: The Favorites list.
Okay, so you can get around the registry and find the things you want to change now. What do you do if you don’t know where the value you want to change is located? Well for that, PHM RegEdit includes a Find feature on the Tools menu. You enter the string you want to search for and tell it whether you want to search through keys, values, data, or any combination thereof.
Figure 7: The search dialog.
Editing the Registry
Any registry editor would be pretty useless without the ability to make changes or additions to the registry. Of course PHM RegEdit allows you to do this. To edit existing data within a key, simply tap it once, make your modifications in the dialog, and tap OK. Changes are saved to the registry immediately, although depending on what you changed, you may need to soft reset for the change to take effect. To delete anything, tap and hold the item you wish to delete and select “Delete” from the pop-up menu. You will be presented with a dialog box asking you to confirm the deletion. Note that deleting a key deletes all subkeys and data from that point down, so be careful with that stylus!
You can create new keys or values by tapping the Edit menu and selecting what you want to create. (I would probably have called this menu “New” instead of “Edit” since the only items in the menu allow you to create new entries.) You can create new keys, strings, binary values, DWORD values, multi-string values, and expandable string values. (Not being a developer myself, I have no idea what an expandable string does. :))
Backing Up and Restoring the Registry
One of the first things every tech site will tell you to do before giving you a registry or system tweak is to make a backup of your registry or your entire system before proceeding. PHM RegEdit provides a quick and easy way to back up your Pocket PC’s registry to a file, and restore the entire registry at a later date. Simply go to the Tools menu, select Backup, name your file, decide where to save it, and tap OK. Restoring is as simple as tapping Tools, Restore, selecting your backup file, and tapping OK.
While the full registry backup could be good for fixing major editing mistakes, if you’re just modifying a single key, there’s usually no reason to back up the entire registry. Instead, you could just export the key you’re about to change. To do this, you tap and hold on the key you want to export and select “Export...” from the pop-up menu. Name your file, and tap OK. Everything within that key and any subkeys is then exported to a file.
Figure 8: Exporting a key.
Gotchas
Here is where you may notice a glaring omission from this version of PHM RegEdit. You can export as many keys as you'd like, but you currently cannot import them back in! The good news here is that the release notes for this version state that the Import feature will be available in the next release of PHM RegEdit.
Where To Buy
PHM RegEdit and all of Philippe’s other Windows CE software is available for free download from his Web site. Just select the type of device you have from that page and download it. This page also has some of the author's own screenshots which may be of interest.
Conclusions
Aside from the missing Import feature, I really have nothing negative to say about this software. PHM RegEdit is a very powerful utility for viewing and editing the Pocket PC (or other Windows CE-based OS) registry. The lack of the Import feature to merge exported keys is a major drawback of this version of the utility, but the rest of the features more than make up for this temporary omission, in this reviewer’s opinion. Once that feature is added in the next release, PHM Registry Editor could very well be the ultimate registry editing utility. It definitely deserves a place in every geek’s box of tricks!
