Re: REG_SZ vs REG_EXPAND_SZ data types for %SystemRoot% in registry

Hi FUBARinSFO,

1. Should all the entries with data type REG_SZ data be changed to REG_EXPAND_SZ?

Technically, they should be REG_EXPAND_SZ. However, it depends on the program that reads the value data. Programs can automatically expand the environment strings and use it internally. The point is, if you don't face any problems (apart from the PATH issue), you may leave those registry values as they are.

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows Shell/User]
Windows® Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


"FUBARinSFO" <file1303@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:1182475773.098336.145720@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi folks:

In the course of tracking down the cause of external commands not
executing in command windows, I fixed the problem by changing the data
type of the PATH environment variable in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM
\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment from REG_SZ to
REG_EXPAND_SZ (thank you Bill Stewart at http://internet.cybermesa.com/~bstewart/cmdprompt.html#6
and Wesley Vogel here)

However, it turns out on further inspection that there are some,
perhaps many (4 in one system, 637 in another) registry entries
containing the string '%SystemRoot%' or other expansion environment
variable in its with data type REG_SZ. I've inluded smoe of the data
below in this note.

1. Should all the entries with data type REG_SZ data be changed to
REG_EXPAND_SZ?

2. In the cases where therer are hundreds, is there any tool to do
this with?

3. Does anybody have any idea how this might have come about?

Thank you in advance for your help.

-- Roy Zider

working on systemroot problem
5:29 PM 6/21/2007 lsz

Key name

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID
\{540D8A8B-1C3F-4E32-8132-530F6A502090}
Name (Default)
Type REG_SZ
Data Lauguage bar

Name MenuTextPUI
Type REG_SZ
Data @%SystemRoot%\System32\msutb.dll,-325

Above key as exported (file K7NFULL1.TXT, ANSI now not Unicode)
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID
\{540D8A8B-1C3F-4E32-8132-530F6A502090}
@="Language bar"
"MenuTextPUI"="@%SystemRoot%\\System32\\msutb.dll,-325"

Searching K7N registry....
Using exported file K7NFULL1.TXT

Search term: %;
Found 1 hit:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\HTMLHelp\1.x]
"EnforcedDirectories"="%WINDIR%;%ProgramFiles%\\Movie Maker"

Search term: %\\\
No hits

Search term: %\\
4 hits:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID
\{540D8A8B-1C3F-4E32-8132-530F6A502090
@="Language bar"
"MenuTextPUI"="@%SystemRoot%\\System32\\msutb.dll,-325"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\rtsp\DefaultIcon]
@="%SystemRoot%\\system32\\url.dll,0"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\HTMLHelp\1.x]
"EnforcedDirectories"="%WINDIR%;%ProgramFiles%\\Movie Maker"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Intelligent Search\RNL\1.0]
"LoggingWanted"=dword:00000000
"LoggingPath"="%TEMP%\\rnl_log.txt"

Check out the four keys for data type -- all are REG_SZ.


Now search current TOOT registry ...
Use file regfull.txt

Search term: %;

Found 1 hit:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\HTMLHelp\1.x]
"EnforcedDirectories"="%WINDIR%;%ProgramFiles%\\Movie Maker"

Search term: %\\\
No hits

Search term: %\\
637 hits:
Showing first ten only:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Applications\WINWORD.EXE
\TaskbarExceptionsIcon

s\explorer.exe,16]
@="%ProgramFiles%\\Microsoft Office\\Office10\\OUTLOOK.EXE"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID
\{540D8A8B-1C3F-4E32-8132-530F6A502090}]
@="Language bar"
"MenuTextPUI"="@%SystemRoot%\\System32\\msutb.dll,-325"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\rtsp\DefaultIcon]
@="%SystemRoot%\\system32\\url.dll,0"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\HTMLHelp\1.x]
"EnforcedDirectories"="%WINDIR%;%ProgramFiles%\\Movie Maker"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet

Explorer\Extensions\{e2e2dd38-d088-4134-82b7-f2ba38496583}]
"CLSID"="{1FBA04EE-3024-11d2-8F1F-0000F87ABD16}"
"Exec"="%windir%\\Network Diagnostic\\xpnetdiag.exe"
"MenuText"="@xpsp3res.dll,-20001"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Control

Panel\Extended Properties\{305CA226-D286-468e-B848-2B2E8E697B74} 2]
"%SystemRoot%\\system32\\Firewall.cpl"="3,10"
"%SystemRoot%\\system32\\wscui.cpl"=dword:ffffffff
"%SystemRoot%\\system32\\NetSetup.cpl"=dword:00000003
"C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\Microsoft

Shared\\Speech\\sapi.cpl"=dword:00000004
"%SystemRoot%\\System32\\wuaucpl.cpl"=dword:0000000a
"%SystemRoot%\\system32\\appwiz.cpl"=dword:00000008
"%SystemRoot%\\system32\\access.cpl"=dword:00000007
"%SystemRoot%\\system32\\bthprops.cpl"="2,3"
"%SystemRoot%\\system32\\desk.cpl"=dword:00000001
"%SystemRoot%\\system32\\hdwwiz.cpl"=dword:ffffffff
"%SystemRoot%\\system32\\inetcpl.cpl"="3,10"
"%SystemRoot%\\system32\\intl.cpl"=dword:00000006
"%SystemRoot%\\system32\\irprops.cpl"=dword:00000002
"%SystemRoot%\\system32\\joy.cpl"=dword:00000002
"%SystemRoot%\\system32\\main.cpl"=dword:00000002
"%SystemRoot%\\system32\\mmsys.cpl"=dword:00000004
"%SystemRoot%\\system32\\ncpa.cpl"=dword:00000003
"%SystemRoot%\\system32\\nwc.cpl"=dword:00000000
"%SystemRoot%\\system32\\nusrmgr.cpl"=dword:00000009
"%SystemRoot%\\system32\\odbccp32.cpl"=dword:00000000
"%SystemRoot%\\system32\\powercfg.cpl"=dword:00000005
"%SystemRoot%\\system32\\sysdm.cpl"="5"
"%SystemRoot%\\system32\\telephon.cpl"=dword:00000002
"%SystemRoot%\\system32\\timedate.cpl"=dword:00000006

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
\AutoplayHand

lers\Handlers\MSCDBurningOnArrival]
"DefaultIcon"=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,
00,52,00,6f,00,6f,\
00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,
00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,\
53,00,48,00,45,00,4c,00,4c,00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,
00,2d,\
00,35,00,00,00
"Action"="@%SystemRoot%\\system32\\SHELL32.dll,-17169"
"Provider"="@%SystemRoot%\\system32\\SHELL32.dll,-17170"
"InvokeProgID"="Folder"
"InvokeVerb"="open"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
\AutoplayHand

lers\Handlers\MSOpenFolder]
"DefaultIcon"=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,
00,52,00,6f,00,6f,\
00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,
00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,\
53,00,48,00,45,00,4c,00,4c,00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,
00,2d,\
00,35,00,00,00
"Action"="@%SystemRoot%\\system32\\SHELL32.dll,-17154"
"Provider"="@%SystemRoot%\\system32\\SHELL32.dll,-17155"
"InvokeProgID"="Folder"
"InvokeVerb"="open"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
\AutoplayHand

lers\Handlers\MSPrintPicturesOnArrival]
"DefaultIcon"=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,
00,52,00,6f,00,6f,\
00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,
00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,\
53,00,48,00,45,00,4c,00,4c,00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,
00,2d,\
00,31,00,37,00,00,00
"Action"="@%SystemRoot%\\system32\\SHELL32.dll,-17158"
"Provider"="@%SystemRoot%\\system32\\SHELL32.dll,-17159"
"InvokeProgID"="Applications\\shimgvw.dll"
"InvokeVerb"="print"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
\AutoplayHand

lers\Handlers\MSSHAudioDevHandler]
@=""
"Action"="@%SystemRoot%\\system32\\audiodev.dll,-500"
"Provider"="@%SystemRoot%\\system32\\audiodev.dll,-501"
"DefaultIcon"=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,
00,52,00,6f,00,6f,\
00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,
00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,\
61,00,75,00,64,00,69,00,6f,00,64,00,65,00,76,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,
00,2c,\
00,2d,00,35,00,30,00,00,00
"ProgID"="Shell.HWEventHandlerShellExecute"
"InitCmdLine"="::{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}\\::
{640167b4-59b0-47a6-b335

-a6b3c0695aea}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
\AutoplayHand

lers\Handlers\MSShowPicturesOnArrival]
"DefaultIcon"=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,
00,52,00,6f,00,6f,\
00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,
00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,\
53,00,48,00,45,00,4c,00,4c,00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,
00,2d,\
00,32,00,34,00,39,00,00,00
"Action"="@%SystemRoot%\\system32\\SHELL32.dll,-17156"
"Provider"="@%SystemRoot%\\system32\\SHELL32.dll,-17157"
"InvokeProgID"="Shell.AutoplayForSlideShow.1"
"InvokeVerb"="open"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
\AutoplayHand

lers\Handlers\MSTakeNoAction]
"DefaultIcon"=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,
00,52,00,6f,00,6f,\
00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,
00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,\
53,00,48,00,45,00,4c,00,4c,00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,
00,2d,\
00,33,00,33,00,38,00,00,00
"Action"="@%SystemRoot%\\system32\\SHELL32.dll,-17168"
"Provider"="<TakeNoAction>"
"ProgID"="Shell.AutoplaySpecial"

.

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