RES Automation Manager Quick Tip – appending to existing registry values

I was recently asked (by one of our existing RES Automation Manager customers) how they go about adding to an existing registry value using RES Automation Manager. Well the answer is simple really – by using the @REGISTRY function. I’ll detail how you go about using this function in this blog post.

1. Firstly start the RES Automation Manager console;
2. Select “Modules” from the left hand pane, Right Click and select “Add”;
3. Give the module a suitable name then select the “Tasks” Tab, Right Click and select “Add”.
4. Select the task “Registry Setting (Apply,Query)” and select “Apply”.
5. You will now be presented with a dialogue where you can select various methods to add the required registry value you wish to append too. In my example I’m going to APPEND a new string to the START of the existing USERINIT registry value. Select “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE” from the left hand pane, Right Click and select “Open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE…”.
6. Browse to “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon” and select “Userinit”, this will add this value to the current dialog box.
7. Now we are going to add the @REGISTRY function to the Userinit value by Right Clicking on “Userinit” in the right hand pane and selecting “Modify”.
8. In the “Value Data” field, Right Click and select “Insert Functions” >; “@[REGISTRY(;)]”.
9. RES Automation Manager now provides you with a nice GUI that allows you to browse to the registry value you wish to retrieve, when the job is executed on the agent. In my case this is going to be the registry value I selected in Step 6, as this is the value I’d like to append too.
10. Now I simply add the new value that I wish to append, before the @REGISTRY function or after, depending where I’d like my value to appear – in my case this value is “MyNewValuetoAppend” [code]MyNewValuetoAppend,@[REGISTRY(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon)][/code]
11. The resulted registry value now looks like this, once the job has been scheduled and completed [code]MyNewValuetoAppend,C:\Windows\system32\userinit.exe[/code]

That’s all there is to it!

Nathan