One of the similarities that Windows Mobile bears to its full-sized desktop cousin is the presence of the Registry for storing system and application settings. At times the Windows Mobile Registry needs to be edited when changes can't be made by other means. Unfortunately, editing the Windows Mobile Registry on a Windows Mobile device can be a nightmare. If you're stuck with a device that has a minimal keyboard or, worse, no keyboard at all, even a trivial Registry editing operation can be agonizing to pull off!
The Mobile Registry Editor (MRE) allows you to remotely edit the Registry of an attached Windows Mobile device. By using MRE, you don't have to contend with your mobile device's interface to do the editing; you can do it from the relative comfort of your own keyboard.
The program requires the .NET Framework 1.1 to run and, of course, the presence of a Windows Mobile device to connect with. Once the program finds a suitable mobile device, it will display a screen similar to the classic Regedit application: in the left-hand pane a tree view, and in the right-hand pane a list of available values to edit from the selected key.
MRE lets you do many of the things that are possible in the conventional Regedit application: add or delete keys, change or rename values and copy information from the Registry to the clipboard. The program also has a feature -- a Favorites tab -- that's not present in Regedit. If you click on it, you can add shortcuts to commonly used Registry keys or values so you don't have to manually hunt for them later.
The current version of MRE is 1.1. Enhancements scheduled for future editions include the ability to import keys en masse via a .REG file (a broadly requested feature).
Serdar Yegulalp is editor of the Windows Power Users Newsletter. Check it out for the latest advice and musings on the world of Windows network administrators -- and please share your thoughts as well!
