How to refresh registry value - windows

I am uninstalling some application and reading the software installation enumeration value from registry.
The problem is after uninstallation it is not changing the registry value untill unless the screen or regedit is not refreshed. after refreshing only i am getting the correct value.
Could some one help me out to refresh the regedit in python codes.
Regards,
upendra

I assume that by "refreshing" the "screen," you mean restarting the computer? Regardless, you can be sure that whatever registry keys you've modified will be correctly updated after the system is restarted. The registry is updated with lazy flush and writer threads, so my guess is that the changes you're making aren't flushed back to the registry immediately, but your question doesn't provide enough information about how you're modifying these registry values for me to be able to propose an alternative solution.
Perhaps more importantly, what are you trying to do here? Are you trying to get your uninstaller to verify that your application has been uninstalled? Why is this necessary? I feel like there has to be a better way than expecting registry edits to be committed and then read back out immediately.

I have kind the same problem. I "install" a python tool and environment and create some system variables in the registry. To refresh the registry I do the following:
def RefreshEnv():
HWND_BROADCAST = 0xFFFF
WM_SETTINGCHANGE = 0x1A
SMTO_ABORTIFHUNG = 0x0002
result = ctypes.c_long()
SendMessageTimeoutW = ctypes.windll.user32.SendMessageTimeoutW
SendMessageTimeoutW(HWND_BROADCAST, WM_SETTINGCHANGE, 0, u'Environment',
SMTO_ABORTIFHUNG, 5000, ctypes.byref(result))
This method is not refreshing the registry like I expected. I still have to open the window to edit the system variables in Windows and just click OK to refresh them. Otherwise my installed tools are crashing with an KeyError while trying to catch the environment variables.
I don't know if the Refresh function abovee will help you (I guess not), but at least it's a try.

You can use either of:
Just restart windows explorer with SysInternal's Process Explorer, or
If you have chocolatey installed, you can just type refreshenv in a PowerShell.

I am modifying the registry key and want to read that values without restarting the system.
I am able to read manually if I refresh the screen (F5 Button), but could you let me know how to capture this through python.

Related

Where in Wiindows 10 is noted, that an installation process is running?

An installation process for Java crashed.
When I try to restart the installation, I get the message that there is another installation still running.
Where is this flag and how can I reset it?
Try the tip number 6 from https://windowsreport.com/another-installation-already-progress-error-windows-10/#6.
Run regedit. Then find the keys "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsInstallerInProgress" and "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionInstaller" and locate the Default value and double click it. Delete the values from Data value field.
After making changes to your registry, you need to set the Startup type of the Windows Installer service to Disabled. After that, restart your PC and set the Startup type for Windows Installer to Manual.

Can't turn informational/warning messages off

Every time I'm going through an entire file searching of occurrences of a string, VS shows a poop-up notifying me about that. I've unchecked the option to continue that behavior at number of times - to no avail.
I went to options and unchecked it there as well (see image for verification) but every time I restart VS, the settings in back there - checked and unaffected. I'm out of ideas what to try to remedy it. (Googled it. I haven't found anything that I recognized as useful.)
Those settings are saved (when you close Visual Studio) in this registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\12.0\Find
"ShowEndOfSearch"="1"
"ShowNoFound"="1"
"ShowAllReplacementsNotAllowed"="1"
"ShowSomeReplacementsNotAllowed"="1"
"ShowNoMore"="1"
"ShowFindStart"="1"
"ShowCancel"="1"
"ShowCancelBeforeReplacementsMade"="1"
"ShowReplaceInFilesWarning"="1"
Do you have access to that key? Try setting these values to "0" in regedit.

Understanding SystemParametersInfo SPI_SETFOREGROUNDLOCKTIMEOUT

My App needs to get the focus when it get's called by an external tool (via an API), i know that the default is, that it should just flash in the Taskbar, but in this case this is absolutely not the behaviour that i want. In this case i try to get the focus by "this.Activate()" (C#).
This is where the ForeGroundLockTimeOut comes into play.
However, I got a little problem understanding the SystemParameterInfo SPI_SETFOREGROUNDLOCKTIMEOUT.
I know that it's used to set the ForeGroundLockTimeOut which defines how long your app has to wait until it gets the focus it requested.
(for further information the variable "val" is an IntPtr that is set to 0)
SystemParametersInfo(SPI_SETFOREGROUNDLOCKTIMEOUT,0,val,SPIF_SENDWININICHANGE + SPIF_UPDATEINIFILE);
this one will change the Registry key that that handles the timeout (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\ForeGroundLockTimout)
Since this will change the behaviour of all apps, it's really the last resort to use.
Now i thought what if i don't update the registry key. So i tried this:
SystemParametersInfo(SPI_SETFOREGROUNDLOCKTIMEOUT, 0, val, 0);
However it doesn't change the behavior of my app in any way, but
SystemParametersInfo(SPI_SETFOREGROUNDLOCKTIMEOUT,0,val,SPIF_SENDWININICHANGE);
does.
What i do not understand is why this only works for my app, which is absolutely what i want, but i do not understandit .Why do i have to broadcast a change, that only works for my app, when there has been no change made to any registry key or whatsoever, and why does this work only for my app.
Note: If you want to test this behavior, test it when Visual Studio is not running, while it's running (even if this Solution is not loaded) it changes the behavior of the App into getting focus in any case.
This is not a per-app setting, it is a global system setting. There's no way to set it for just your application, so when you call SystemParametersInfo with 0 for the last parameter, nothing happens.
On the other hand, when you use SPIF_SENDWININICHANGE, the new setting gets broadcast in the form of a WM_SETTINGCHANGE message. (Which is why manually editing the registry is the wrong thing to do; always call the documented API.)
Aside from that, this code is wrong:
SPIF_SENDWININICHANGE + SPIF_UPDATEINIFILE
To concatenate two flags, you must use the boolean OR operator (|), not the addition operator (+). In this particular case, because 0x1 + 0x2 and 0x1 | 0x2 are both equal to 3, it seems to work, but that's just an accident.
The real solution to this problem needs not involve manipulating global settings (because you surely don't want to do that on client machines, even if you're OK with it on your own). You need to work with the system, rather than trying to work against it. In the system's model, the process that currently has the focus is the one with the privilege of setting/changing the focus. So there are basically three options:
Just have the external tool call SetForegroundWindow itself and pass your application's window as the parameter. This altogether avoids your app having to activate itself.
Use the AllowSetForegroundWindow function to delegate the external tool's foreground-window-setting privileges to your application. It should call this function, passing the ID of your app's process as the parameter. That way, when your app calls SetForegroundWindow, it will work as expected.
Depending on how your tool and application are designed, you could just have the external tool launch the application. Like the documentation says, if a process is launched by the foreground process, it is allowed to set the foreground window.
SPIF_UPDATEINIFILE--Writes the new system-wide parameter setting to the user profile.
SPIF_SENDCHANGE--Broadcasts the WM_SETTINGCHANGE message after updating the user profile.

How to get ONLY w3wp instances when specifying performance counters for Perfmon/LogMan on Windows?

Hopefully this question has a simple answer i'm overlooking! I have an IIS webserver with multiple sites on it. In Perfmon, they show up as w3wp#1, w3wp#2, etc... I'm writing a Logman script that will collect performance counter data using the counters/instances that I specify and I want to ONLY collect any w3wp worker processes.
I've tried a couple ways, but no luck:
\.NET CLR Memory(*w3wp*)\
\.NET CLR Memory(w3wp#*)\
\.NET CLR Memory(w3wp*)\
I've looked at the documentation here, and it seems like it claims to support wildcards, but not partial matches. I'm not sure what to make of that. Is there any way accomplish what I want? Hope I explained this well enough. Let me know if more details are needed.
Thanks!
There is a way to display the instance by appending Process Id to it. Since ProcessId do not change it helps determining the correct instance. This post describes the method - Perfmon: Identifying processes by PID instead of instance.
Relevant part from the link:
Making below registry change will display processes in the format of **ProcessName_PID** instead of **ProcessName#1**.
Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\PerfProc\Performance
On the Edit menu, click New, and then click DWORD Value.
Right-click New Value #1, click Rename, and then type ProcessNameFormat to name the new value.
Right-click ProcessNameFormat, and then click Modify.
In the Data value box, type one of the following values, and then click OK:
1: Disables PID data. This value is the default value.
2: Enables PID data.
Exit Registry Editor.
Warning: Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly by using Registry Editor or by using another method. These problems might require that you reinstall the operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that these problems can be solved. Modify the registry at your own risk.
Important: If you enable this feature, you may be unable to monitor process-specific information by using third-party utilities or custom-made programs, and this functionality may change at any time in the future without notice.
Hope it helps someone.
I came up with a custom batch script that find the application pool ID, PID, and associates it with the IIS worker process in question. From there, I can manually FIND and REPLACE a generic placeholder in my perfmon configuration file to start collecting for the specific site(s). I can supply some details if there is interest.

VS2005 Setup project - program asks for installation media when started for the first time by another user

I have a very simple VS2005 deployment project that aims to install for all users on a PC.
All the application files are written to %Program Files%\MyProg. A shortcut is created in the start menu and the startup folder. No registry settings or anything else are created. I have set
'InstallAllUsers' to true.
The created MSI runs fine and installs the software. It works without any problems when running under the user account from which it was installed.
When logging in as another user, the start menu and startup icons are present. It attempts to launch the application however an installation window pops up and states that 'the feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable.' The installer will only proceed if pointed to the original MSI file.
Why does this happen? I want my application to be installed completely for all users when it is installed by a single user.
edit: Solution
I was getting similar event log messages as shown on this page. In my case it turned out to be as simple as ensuring that the User's Program Menu had its 'AlwaysCreate' attribute turned to false. If it was true, windows would try and recreate the folder when a new user logged in. This somehow required the invocation of the installer and thus resulted in the 'please insert the installation media' prompts.
It is actually kind of hard to say without some more information. I would recommend checking on the rights in the installed folder (seeing if only the one who installed it has rights) and also checking the file list for the directory (to make sure VS didn't automatically place some files in the user profile). Let me know what comes out from those two steps and we can try to keep digging if that didn't shed any light on it.
Keep in mind chances are this is most def not specific to Visual Studio, look at this MS support article here where the same message is coming back for office.
I know this is an old post but I thought I'd add another cause and solution in case the above didn't work for you.
There is a bug in VS Setup and Deployment Projects which results in registry values being entered into HKCU instead of HKLM irrespective of the InstallAllUsers property being set to true.
You must use Orca msi editor to change the registry root for "DesktopFolder" and "ProgramMenuFolder" from either 1 or 2 to -1. The issue cannot be resolved via VS.
http://www.qa.downappz.com/questions/vs-2010-deploys-per-user-features-during-install-which-require-access-to-install-media.html

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