The Windows Remote Registry service allows you to remotely view and edit the registry of another PC via the network. This allows you to make registry changes without having to have physical or remote desktop access to the machine. Here is how you can enable Remote Registry on Windows 7:

Step 0: Open ports in the Windows firewall

Sometimes you can’t directly enable the Remote Registry as the Windows Firewall is standing in the way. You can use PsExec from SysInternals to run a remote command line command to disable the firewall. This relies on PsExec access working, of course. Usually it is fine in a domain environment.

If you download PsExec and drop it into your c:\ drive, you can run this command and get command line access for that remote box.

c:\psexec \\remote_machine_name cmd

Once you have that command line open, you can run this command to disable the firewall:

netsh advfirewall set currentprofile state off

Step 1: Start the Remote Registry service

Load up the Services MMC (Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services), right click on “Services (Local)” and choose “Connect to another computer”. Enter the name of your remote machine and connect to it. You should now be able to find the “Remote Registry” service and start it.

You should now have the Remote Registry enabled on your Windows 7 computer, ready for you to tweak away to your heart’s content.