How to Add or Delete Registry Key and Entry using Command Prompt

The registry editor beholds a slew of crucial data files and configuration settings related to various OS components as well as user and system apps.

In this post, we will show you the steps to add or delete registry keys and values using Command Prompt.

Before you begin, let’s take a look about the root keys otherwise known as:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT = HKCR
HKEY_CURRENT_USER = HKCU
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE = HKLM
HKEY_USERS = HKU
HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG = HKCC

So, instead of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, you will have to use it short form HKLM.

The Syntax

reg add <keyname> [{/v valuename | /ve}] [/t datatype] [/s separator] [/d data] [/f]

Note Note: If the registry key name, value name and data contains a space, enclose the key name in quotes.

Note Note: /ve Specifies that the added registry entry has a null value.

Here’s the list of all the datatype that you could refer to and use the one that corresponds to your registry file type.

REG_SZ
REG_MULTI_SZ
REG_DWORD_BIG_ENDIAN
REG_DWORD
REG_BINARY
REG_DWORD_LITTLE_ENDIAN
REG_LINK
REG_FULL_RESOURCE_DESCRIPTOR
REG_EXPAND_SZ

How to Add a Key or Subkey using Command Prompt

The parent key: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google

For example, we want to add a subkey named DriveFS inside the parent key. So, we ran below command:

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\DriveFS" /f

To delete the subkey, we use the reg delete command:

reg delete "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\DriveFS" /f

How to add a Registry entry using Command Prompt

Once the subkey was created, we will create a new DWORD (32-bit) entry named Show and assign it 1 as its Value Data to enable it.

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\DriveFS" /v "Show" /t REG_DWORD /d "1" /f

To delete a Registry entry, run reg detete command. for example, we’ll delete the above DWORD value entry:

reg delete "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\DriveFS" /v "Show" /f

We can run the following command to create a String Value (REG_SZ):

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\DriveFS" /v "MountPoint" /t REG_SZ /d "C:\GDrive" /f

To edit the Default entry in a key, you must run reg add command wit switch and don’t need to specify the value name into the command.

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\DriveFS" /ve /d "100" /f

How to add a Registry entry using batch file

In some cases, you want to add or delete Registry keys or entries automatically instead of executing the commands manually. To achieve that goal, you need create a batch file.

For example, we’ll create a batch file then put all commands into it at once.

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\DriveFS" /f
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\DriveFS" /v "Show" /t REG_DWORD /d "1" /f
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\DriveFS" /v "MountPoint" /t REG_SZ /d "C:\GDrive" /f
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\DriveFS" /ve /d "100" /f