Registry Viewer for ntuser.dat files

Question

I have set up a new PC, basically containing all the software that I had on my old PC. Now I'm trying to migrate the settings and data files. I have access to the old disk. That works fine for many programs which have their settings in files but not for those which have their settings in the Registry.

So my problem is now: I have the Registry file ntuser.dat from the old machine and I need to look up and copy some Registry keys. That's why I'm looking for a tool with the following characteristics:

• works on Windows 7 x64
• can read ntuser.dat files
• displays the contents similar to regedit
• is gratis

Optional, but highly needed:

• can export a key into the .REG file format so that I can import it into my new Registry

I have tried:

• using Regedit and load a hive manually. But this only seems to work for the LOCAL_MACHINE and not for the user hive.
• RegViewer, but there's no binary download available, only the source code
• RegLookup, but there's no binary download available, only the source code
• RegRipper, but it just generates a report and that does not contain all values, just the keys.

I don't want to compile it myself, since I don't know whether I do it right and I can't be sure that it works as expected.

Answer 1

I found Windows Registry Recovery.

• it's freeware
• works on Windows 2000 through Windows 10
• can display the data in a regedit-like manner (choose Explore/Raw data)
• can export as Regedit 4 compatible files

Answer 2

I have used this from an Administrative command prompt.

rem create a virtual registry key that points to the default (and existing accounts) users registry.
reg LOAD HKLM\x c:\users\%%a\ntuser.dat

Now the other key is connected to the X subfolder. I have done this many times successfully. Then export is easy.

Before you import, open file in Notepad and run a "Search and Replace". HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/x for HKEY_CURRENT_USER. Then save, exit and import to your registry.