How To Delete And Add Registry Keys From The Command Line

There are a few possible scenarios where a Windows user might have to or want to use the command line instead of the regedit tool to delete and add keys in the Windows Registry. It can be that a virus or other malicious software has limited access to the Registry so that regedit cannot be used. Another possible reason is script or batch usage to perform operations like adding or deleting keys regularly by simply executing a batch file on the computer system.

The command line tool reg.exe can be used to manage the Registry from the command line. It not only provides access to delete or add but also other options like exporting or importing keys.

Entering reg /? into the command line will display all possible options that are available.

Delete a Registry key from the command line

The reg delete command can be used on local and remote machines. The basic command looks like the following

reg delete keyname valuename parameters

To delete a key with all its values and subkeys a user would have to issue the following command

reg delete HKLM\Software\Test

That’s the most basic form of deleting a Registry key from the command line. This will delete the key Test with all its subkeys and values.

reg delete \\RemoteSystem\HKLM\Software\Test /v Testvalue

This example deletes the Registry value Testvalue under Test on the remote machine RemoteSystem.

Add a Registry key from the command line

The add parameter uses a similar order. The basic command

reg add HKLM\Software\Test

adds the key Test to HKLM\Software\

Important here are the \t and \d parameters which define the Regkey data type and the value that is assigned.

reg add HKLM\Software\Test /v Testdata /t REG_BINARY \d ffffff

Adds the value Testdata to the key Test that is of type reg_binary and contains the data ffffff.

Using the /? parameter will explain every command in great detail. This concludes the little tutorial on how to delete and add Registry keys from the command line.

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Author: Martin Brinkmann, Monday April 5, 2010 -
Tags:edit registry, reg.exe, registry, registry key, Windows, windows registry, windows tips

Responses so far:

1. Zim says:

   April 5, 2010 at 3:15 pm

   Nice! Thanks for the tip :)

   Reply