Add Windows Registry on Windows-like systems - Ansible module win_regedit
How to automate the creation of the Windows Registry key “name” and “value” under a specified “path” on Windows-like systems with Ansible Playbook using win_regedit module.


How to Add Windows Registry key-value on Windows-like systems with Ansible?
Changing registry values manually can be time-consuming and error-prone. Ansible includes built-in capabilities for managing individual key-value pairs in an idempotent way. I’m going to show you a live demo and some simple Ansible code. I’m Luca Berton and welcome to today’s episode of Ansible Pilot
Ansible adds Windows Registry on Windows-like systems
ansible.windows.win_regedit
- Get information about Windows registry keys
Let’s talk about the Ansible module win_regedit
.
The full name is ansible.windows.win_regedit
, which means that is part of the collection of modules specialized to interact with Windows target host.
It’s a module pretty stable and out for years and it works in Windows and Windows Server operating systems.
It adds, changes, or remove registry keys and values.
Parameters
- path string - The full registry key path including the hive to search for
- name string - Name of the registry entry in the path parameters.
- type string - string / none / binary / dword / expandstring / multistring / qword
- data string - Value of the registry entry
- state string - present / absent
The only mandatory parameter is “path” which is the full registry key path including the hive to search for. Almost mandatory is also the “name” of the name of the registry entry in the path parameters. Another important parameter is the “type” specify the datatype of the value: string, dword, qword, binary, multistring, etc. Some values could either be represented as a decimal number or a hex value. Multi-string values should be passed in as a list. Refer to the module manual for more details and examples. Finally, we could specify the value of the registry entry in the “data” parameter. Another useful parameter is the “state” to specify if we would like to add or modify (“present” option) or remove (“absent” option).
Links
- ansible.windows.win_regedit
- How to add, modify, or delete registry subkeys and values by using a .reg file
The Best Resources For Ansible
Video Course
Printed Book
eBooks
- Ansible by Examples: 200+ Automation Examples For Linux and Windows System Administrator and DevOps
- Ansible For Windows By Examples: 50+ Automation Examples For Windows System Administrator And DevOps
- Ansible For Linux by Examples: 100+ Automation Examples For Linux System Administrator and DevOps
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- Ansible For Containers and Kubernetes By Examples: 20+ Automation Examples To Automate Containers, Kubernetes and OpenShift
- Ansible For Security by Examples: 100+ Automation Examples to Automate Security and Verify Compliance for IT Modern Infrastructure
- Ansible Tips and Tricks: 10+ Ansible Examples to Save Time and Automate More Tasks
- Ansible Linux Users & Groups By Examples: 20+ Automation Examples on Linux Users and Groups Operation for Modern IT Infrastructure
- Ansible For PostgreSQL by Examples: 10+ Examples To Automate Your PostgreSQL database
- Ansible For Amazon Web Services AWS By Examples: 10+ Examples To Automate Your AWS Modern Infrastructure
- Ansible Automation Platform By Example: A step-by-step guide for the most common user scenarios
demo
How to Add Windows Registry on Windows-like systems accessing the Windows Registry with Ansible Playbook.
Specifically, I’m going to create a Windows Registry key located in “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Test”.
code
---
- name: windows registry add
hosts: all
vars:
mypath: 'HKLM:\Software\Test'
mykey: 'hello'
mytype: string
myvalue: 'world'
tasks:
- name: registry add key-value
ansible.windows.win_regedit:
path: "{{ mypath }}"
name: "{{ mykey }}"
type: "{{ mytype }}"
data: "{{ myvalue }}"
execution
ansible-pilot $ ansible-playbook -i virtualmachines/win/inventory windows/registry_add.yml
PLAY [windows registry add] ***********************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] ****************************************************************************
ok: [WindowsServer]
TASK [registry add key-value] *********************************************************************
changed: [WindowsServer]
PLAY RECAP ****************************************************************************************
WindowsServer : ok=2 changed=1 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0
ansible-pilot $
idempotency
ansible-pilot $ ansible-playbook -i virtualmachines/win/inventory windows/registry_add.yml
PLAY [windows registry add] ***********************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] ****************************************************************************
ok: [WindowsServer]
TASK [registry add key-value] *********************************************************************
ok: [WindowsServer]
PLAY RECAP ****************************************************************************************
WindowsServer : ok=2 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0
ansible-pilot $
before execution
after execution
Recap
Now you know how to Add Windows Registry key-value on Windows-like systems with Ansible.
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