May I suggest that you improve the DATE function in registry searches to include DATE & TIME (by adding HOURS, MINUTES and SECONDS to the search criteria)? Specifically, to include a much improved search resolution in the
22 and
22 hours,
the program would show all changes made to the registry during this time interval. These would be
If a program changes my registry (whether during installation or in normal operation) and I wish to determine what the unknown changes are then I will want search for them by doing a global search. I can do this in two ways:
(a) I can either take a snapshot of the registry before and after the changes and then do a comparison of the differences, or;
(b) I can look for changes that are bound by specific criteria such as date and time.
Generally, if I install or run a program and something goes wrong, or it changes settings that shouldn't be changed, then I will usually know within quite a narrow time range of a few minutes or seconds when those registry entries were made.
Assuming I set the time interval correctly then this process will detect all 'permanent' changes made within the boundaries set by this time frame (I understand dynamic changes will go undetected but mostly these are less important than permanent changes.)
Doing a search over one complete day (as we're limited to at the moment in
A streamlined version of the TIME & DATE monitoring would also be very useful to improve the function of the
(a) properly uninstall software (it could be run before and after the normal uninstall to get rid of entries not removed by the uninstaller),
(the one-touch quick-start hot-key/function key would be very useful when one is making many registry changes or installing / uninstalling a lot of software--when one's hacking around or too lazy or forgets to turn on the normal registry monitoring beforehand);
(b) monitor registry changes that a program makes whenever the user (or whatever) changes some setting or function within the program (very useful if there's a one-touch quick start and stop key--before any changes hit the function key to start monitoring, toggle it off when finished);
(c) recover from disaster when hacking the registry on-the-fly or forgetting to back up first, etc. (again--just toggle on and off).
Additionally, registry monitoring and backup functions could be made automatic. A memory resident component would be started at system startup. It could then be set to periodically backup the registry every X minutes/hours etc. and to keep Y number of hourly/daily/weekly registry backups (then purge older ones). To make this successful (i.e: not annoying to the user) the program would:
* not work until the keyboard has been inactive for say Z minutes , or;
* run in low priority mode, or;
* run some similar combination of start/stop/priority options , and;
* it should be capable of being started or stopped instantly by toggling with a hot key or function key, and finally;
* it should always indicate which state it is in (e.g.: by say changing the icon in the system tray etc.).
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