4 ms·

I think the main point of this rant is how horrible regedit is. IMO it's a fair point.

• JdeBP 3y ago
  But one that misses the point that regedit was superseded by regedt32 and even that hasn't been the only tool in the toolkit for decades. There are specialized tools like (for instance) the ODBC Data Sources utilities that edit specific parts of the registry in more structured ways; and there are generalized tools like PowerShell that actually present the Registry as if it were a filesystem. One can actually "dir" the Registry with "-recursive" and wildcards and whatnot in PowerShell. (Personally, I try to be in the habit of avoiding PowerShell's compatibility aliases, but they're there for the people who want things to appear like their old familiar MS-DOS command lines.) "I cannot edit this database file with a text editor." is an I-have-a-hammer-everything-must-be-a-nail argument. In the world of Windows and MS/PC-DOS preceding it, we've had specialized file editors for a long time. I mentioned Peter Norton in another comment. Norton Utilities and clones like PC Tools and the Graham Utilities had specialized data file editors and viewers of several kinds. PC Tools could do several of the leading MS/PC-DOS database file formats, as I recall. (I'm not getting the box out of storage and checking the manual. (-: ) The culture of MS/PC-DOS has had the idea that more than just text editors exist for many years.