Looking for software to capture software installation

[Hellbringer616]

Hey everyone, i am hoping you can help me out with a unique issue.

A client of mine had a bad patch from MS and had to do a reinstall, all was well until i tried installing his security software, at which point it detects the previous installation (which doesn't exist) and refuses to install.

So to work around this i want to install this software on a VM and capture the changes it makes, then either manually copying the files or repacking the installer to get it working on the other machine.

Reinstalling Windows would work, but would be extremely time consuming and i'd rather avoid it (took 5 hours to patch..)

[Vgr]

You could probably look up the registry, but beware! This can royally screw up your computer! If you want to do it still, Windows+R, type 'regedit' without quotes and Enter. Search for the program's name or developer (usually under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software, and probably Wow6432Node if you're on 64 bits), then 'File > Export' the registry key; that'll save a backup. Then you can try deleting it, and see if install succeeds. Repeat until it works, and if it doesn't, just run all the .reg files you'll have gotten from saving those keys, it'll re-apply what you deleted. And this is why you should make backups.

I make no guarantee that this will work, or not damage your computer!

If you're being extra careful, it should be fine, but use at your own risk.

[Hellbringer616]

I won't want to export the entire registry, Just the changes that were made by the program, It's far too risky to just merge all of Wow6432Node

[Vgr]

I'm not talking about all of Wow6432Node, but only the keys that may be related to your program. If there's a key with the name of your program, or the name of the developer, then you probably found it. If you don't feel comfortable with the registry, that's fine and I can't blame you, but I was trying to solve your problem instead of your solution

[Hellbringer616]

Misunderstood haha. I used a registry scanner to monitor the changes it made and than i exported the keys. hopefully it'll work. I'll need to manually install the dependencies, but hopefully this will work