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Hex pairs and reg_binary in windows registry

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by davoud 2 views

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Hi all,

I understand hexadecimal, binary and decimal and how to convert them to eachother.

When using regedit in windows xp, you can see two different hex numbers in two different formats. For example you can see a 0x###### as a value for a DWORD and you can see hex pairs like ## ## ## ,which the pairs are seperated by a space, as a value for a reg_bianry .

Now I would like to know what is the difference between two different formats of those hex numbers and why they are seperated by a space in the second one and how you convert them to eachother.

and basically how you interpret the one with pairs of numbers.

Any comments would be apprecaited.

4 replies

by tony hopkinson

reg binary is a variable length sequence of bytes, whereas a dword in hex is always the four that make it up in this format.

by davoud

thanks alot for your message Tony. Actually I got seome idea about my questions. however I now have another question. here it is the question:

If a reg_binary value is 9e 3e 07 80 , tweakui makes the changes by altering either of the two most left bytes, 9e or 3e. You will notice this, if you are in General section of tweakui and working with HKCU/control panel/Desktop/UserPreferencesMask.
I would like to know what do the two most right bytes (07 and 80 for example) in UserpreferencesMask mean and why tweakui doesnot change them?

Also I believe, to apply a reg_binary data which is for example "Bit 0x0008" I need to reverse it and apply it to the two most left bytes of the hex pairs. Am I right? if yes could you explain why?

by tony hopkinson

is not something I'm familiar nor am I a registry guru.
You know more about that than I do. Binary and boolean algebra I understand, the registry has always made as much sense as the combined ravings of several lunatics to me.

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