PPCGeeks - GUIDE: How to Backup and Restore Settings Automatically After a Flash

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- - GUIDE: How to Backup and Restore Settings Automatically After a Flash (http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=107440)

GUIDE: How to Backup and Restore Settings Automatically After a Flash

I posted this over in Mighty's ROM thread, but figured I'd re-post again here for others who might benefit as well.

It seems there are quite a few people in this forum wondering how to backup/restore settings or registration data with Sashimi or SDConfig when flashing to a new/updated ROM. So I figured I’d post a little write-up showing how to track registry settings.

In the particular example below, I will show how to track SPB Phone Suite’s registration key so that I don’t have to manually type it in each time I flash. But you can use these exact same steps to track anything from a registration key to a simple settings change like when you want the backlight to dim, and everything else in-between.

So, without further ado, here are the steps to track a registry change so that you can save it and then restore it easily after a flash:

1) Install a registry editor on your phone. I personally use Resco Registry, but if you’re looking for a free option, use PHM RegEdit instead (attached at the bottom of this post). In fact, download PHM anyway since you’ll need it for some of the latter steps below

2) Download a free utility called WinDiff (link here: http://www.grigsoft.com/windiff.zip). Don’t worry, it’s completely safe and doesn’t even require you to install it on your PC. It just runs as a standalone .exe. Once downloaded, unzip it to a location on your PC (NOT your phone).

3) Go into your phone’s registry editor and export the ENTIRE registry. Since I use Resco, to do this all I do is back out to the root of the registry, click and hold on ‘My Registry’ (with PHM it will be 'My Device') and then hit ‘Export…’ and then save it to a location on my phone. Each registry editor is a little different so you may have to google or just play around to figure out how to export the ENTIRE registry with your own editor.

4) Once you’ve exported the registry, close your registry editor and then go and make the change you want (in keeping with my example above, I am going to close my reg editor, then go into SPB Phone Suite and register the app, then hit ‘OK’ and close the app so that the registration setting is recorded).

5) DO NOTHING ELSE!!! Even something small like sending a text right now will force you to have to complete this process all over again (unless you are really good at reading and understanding registry keys and, therefore, know which ones to ignore). So once you’ve made whatever change you’re trying to track in step 4, do absolutely nothing else and continue with step 6 below.

6) Go back into your phone’s registry editor and export the registry to a location on your phone again. Remember what you save the name as and where you saved it to. Be sure to keep track of which of the two registries you’ve exported is which (i.e. which was before the change and which was after).

7) Plug your phone into your computer and dump the 2 exported registry files you just made to your PC.

8 ) Open WinDiff. Select: File -> Compare Files… and chose the FIRST exported registry and choose ‘Open.’ The dialog box will stay open asking you to select the second registry you exported. Do it and then hit ‘Open’ again. WinDiff will now compare the differences between the two registries

9) At this point a single line of red text should appear at the top of the window telling you which file is newer. Double-click the red line of text and it will open up to the first change in the registry comparison.

10) At this point you’ll have to use your brain a little bit as the registry is a big place and I can’t tell you every single registry change possible for whatever it is you’re looking to track. But use F7 and F8 to navigate back and forth between the registry changes (new values will be highlighted in yellow, deleted keys will be highlighted in red). In my example, the only key that changed after registering SPB Phone Suite was HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID{6F42EAB1……}. At this point I can assume that this is the registry key that holds the registration info for my SPB Phone Suite app. So all I have to do now is export just this key (step 11 below).

NOTE: Some keys you’ll have to always ignore like the “Shell\Rai” key or the “System\State\DateTime” key or the “System\State\Phone” as they are changing because your phone’s clock time is changing or your signal strength is changing. Pay attention to the D-Word values within the keys to see what things are and why they’re changing. Again, this is why you have to just use your head a little bit.

11) Now that we’ve found the key we’re looking for, open up the PHM RegEdit app you downloaded in step 1 and navigate to the key you found when tracking your particular registry change by hitting the little + signs. In my case I’m going to navigate to the key I posted in step 10 and then click and hold on the key's folder's name until the ‘Export…’ option shows up and then select it. Pick a name you’ll remember for the registry edit and save it to somewhere on your phone’s memory. YOU MUST change the ‘Type’ to ‘WinCE RegEdit5’ in order for this to work properly every time. Then just hit save.

NOTE: You cannot just export a single D-Word value, you have to export the entire folder than contains it.

12) Now, since I use Sashimi, all I have to do is take the exported registry file that I created in step 11 above and dump it in my Sashimi\Auto\Reg folder and then Sashimi will now register my SPB Phone Suite app automatically when I run Sashimi after a flash. This same method can also be used for SDConfig as well, but you’ll need to do your own research to see how it’s done

*Whew* Ok, I know that was a little long, but hopefully it will serve as a help to the many out there that like to flash whenever one of our chefs releases a new ROM, but hate setting everything up from scratch again. In my case, I'm able to have Sashimi automatically restore my manila tabs the way I like 'em, set my backlight settings, register a bunch of apps, set my default ringtone, set my phone to automatically dial my voicemail password for me, keep WiFi on when the phone is idle, keep my music playing when the screen turns off, set the task manager to close apps on 'X' instead of just minimize them... the list goes on and on and on. Point is, you can make your phone exactly the way you want it, and have it be restored to exactly that way immediately after each flash - all automatically!

Keep in mind that the above method will help you track and export 90% of the settings changes you make so that you, too, will no longer have to do them manually. Also, some settings changes aren’t tracked in the registry at all and some change multiple large keys so you may still have a few settings you’ll have to do manually after a flash.

Good luck :thumbleft: