Scripts for the registry

Since XP Home can't be a member of a domain, this will preclude using a login script from a domain.

You can use Windows Script Hosting to distribute changes to all, but the Windows 98 systems. Some information on that topic can be found here:
http://www.windowsitlibrary.com/Content/314/2.html?Ad=1&

To modify the registry on the Windows 98 boxes, you can use the steps detailed here:

http://www.nwc.com/netdesign/1011part1b.html

The real answer is that you will likely need multiple ways of modifying the registry, as you have different systems in the environment. A cost analysis of what it takes to support these differing systems would most likely reveal a need to consolidate onto one OS.

Best of luck.

In Windows 3.x, 95 and 98, you can access the registry by accessing regedit.exe in the WINDOWS folder. I'm sure you can do the same with the rest of the windows versions. Go to start, run and type c:\windows\regedit.exe. Modify the registry as necessary, and export your modifications to a file which can be used to apply to any registry.

If you don't want to do that, you can try creating one from scratch. The format is as follows:

[REGEDIT4] is the first line. remove the square brackets if registry editor complains at you.

the next line is the actual key you want to modify contents of, or create contents in.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software] is a valid example.

The data in the key is in the format of: "keyname"="key value as a string"
If it is the value of (default), replace "keyname" with the @ sign.

For hexadecimal values, replace "key value as a string" with HEX:nn,nn,nn,nn where nn is a 8 bit hexadecimal number.

Save this as a file with a REG extension. Run the file in windows to apply the changes to your registry.