How to change the data of registry property data without knowing the key beforehand

Question

I'm trying to write code that will find and change the data inside of a registry keys properties if it includes a specific string like 'placeholder'.

Answer 1

I am addressing the question, how do I search property values in the registry? The way I do it is with this script:

# get-itemproperty2.ps1
# get-childitem skips top level key properties, use get-item for that
param([parameter(ValueFromPipeline)]$key)

process { 
  $valuenames = $key.getvaluenames() 

  if ($valuenames) { 
    $valuenames | foreach {
      $value = $_
      [pscustomobject] @{
        Path = $key -replace 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER',
          'HKCU:' -replace 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE','HKLM:'
        Name = $Value
        Value = $Key.GetValue($Value)
        Type = $Key.GetValueKind($Value)
      }
    }
  } else {
    [pscustomobject] @{
      Path = $key -replace 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER',
        'HKCU:' -replace 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE','HKLM:'
        Name = ''
        Value = ''
        Type = ''
    }
  }
}

With that script in hand, here's an example.

ls -r hkcu:\key1 | get-itemproperty2 | where value -match value

Path            Name  Value    Type
----            ----  -----    ----
HKCU:\key1\key2 name2 value2 String

The results can be used with set-itemproperty.

ls -r hkcu:\key1 | get-itemproperty2 | where value -match value | 
  set-itemproperty -value myvalue -whatif