I'd like to delete certain registry keys in HKEY_USERS Therefore I need to search for a certain key in the batch file. I thought about using REG QUERY HKU\(long number)\Software\PiSA However I do not know this long number after HKU\ As far as I know I can not use a wildcard instead of this long number. is there another way of finding out if that key exists? Seaching for a Key in HKLM works perfect because there is no long number(user name information) included e.g. REG QUERY HKLM\Software\pisa I don't wanna use regedit or any other tool because i'd love to do it all in a batch file if possible. need to do this on many computers so a script would be fine looking forward to get any help on how to do this. thx

You've given me an idea with your question. Type REG QUERY HKU. See what you get? A list of keys identifying each user on the system. Now all you need to do is combine that with the FOR /F command. Something like: for /f %%a in ('reg query hku') do ( ... ) but I'm a bit busy right now so I leave it to one of the batch programming experts to fill in the gaps.

Good luck, chuck. What I get is: The specified path is invalid. ===================================== If at first you don't succeed, you're about average. M2

M2, that could be because you're still using Windows Dinosaur Edition (a.k.a. w2k) and it doesn't recognise HKU as a supported abbreviation for HKEY_USERS.

could be ==================================== C:\temp\-\x-sim\ft\house>REG QUERY HKEY_USERS The specified path is invalid. ===================================== If at first you don't succeed, you're about average. M2

Oh I see. In my case I get this: C:\>REG QUERY HKEY_USERS ! REG.exe VERSION 3.0 HKEY_USERS HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-19 HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-19_Classes HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-20 HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-20_Classes HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-1292428093-1708537768-1957994488-1006 HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-1292428093-1708537768-1957994488-1006_Classes HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-18

Hello Sorry for not to reply any sooner. Thanks so far for all your help. I've tried several things however i have to admit i'm not a batch programer at all. :-) for a test a used another search string for /f %%a in ('reg query hku') do ( reg query %%a\software\microsoft\netshow >>nets_log.txt ) the result as followed: ! REG.exe VERSION 3.0 HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\software\microsoft\netshow HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\software\microsoft\netshow\Player ! REG.exe VERSION 3.0 HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-19\software\microsoft\netshow HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-19\software\microsoft\netshow\Player ! REG.exe VERSION 3.0 HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-20\software\microsoft\netshow HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-20\software\microsoft\netshow\Player ! REG.exe VERSION 3.0 HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-955686789-1011868361-3389687979-19376\software\microsoft\netshow HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-955686789-1011868361-3389687979-19376\software\microsoft\netshow\Player ! REG.exe VERSION 3.0 HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-18\software\microsoft\netshow HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-18\software\microsoft\netshow\Player I only need the following first line of each registry entry like: HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\software\microsoft\netshow HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-19\software\microsoft\netshow HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-20\software\microsoft\netshow HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-955686789-1011868361-3389687979-19376\software\microsoft\netshow Yes I could do an additional command like findstr /e \software\microsoft\netshow nets_log.txt > nets_res.txt I was wondering if there is another (maybe easier) way of doing so.