JumpToRegKey

Most of what’s going on your computer is reflected inside system registry entries. Manual management is possible, but you need to know what you’re doing at all times. To help with registry management, JumpToRegKey is a small application designed in a similar way to the Windows Run tool, but dedicated to registry keys.

One of its major advantages is portability, thus skipping you the time and effort otherwise put into installing it on your PC. It’s lightweight enough to be stored, and carried around on a thumb drive. What’s more, using it on other PCs doesn’t leave any traces of use, unless you end up modifying registry entries in the process.

Running it brings up a prompt, asking you to input the location you want to jump to. Without a built-in browser, you need to use other means to grab the path of interest, because the only way to specify it is writing it down in the dedicated field, or inserting from clipboard.

Chances are you end up with an error message every time, stating that the location is invalid. This is because hives use abbreviations, such as HKLM for HKEY_CURRENT_USER, or HKLM for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. Once confirmed, the location is brought up in the default Registry Editor, so you can continue editing from there.

The application closes right after the Registry Editor is brought up. Sadly, it doesn’t sit in the tray area, even though a corresponding icon is created. However, there is a workaround to bring it on the desktop a lot faster. This is simply done by assigning a hotkey command to the shortcut from the Properties panel.

In conclusion, managing registry entries is a tedious, and risky task, so it’s only best done with proper knowledge. Navigation isn’t comfortable either, but JumpToRegKey opens up the exact location you want to reach. It’s a little rough around the edges though, and it might take more time to write down the location of interest than reaching it through regular means.