Ansible win_regedit: Manage Windows Registry Keys & Values (Examples)

By Luca Berton · Published 2024-01-01 · Category: installation

How to manage Windows Registry with Ansible win_regedit module. Create, modify, and remove registry keys and values with practical automation examples.

Ansible win_regedit: Manage Windows Registry Keys & Values (Examples)

How to Remove Windows Registry key 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.

Ansible remove 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 removes 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.
state string - present/absent

The only mandatory parameter is "path" which is the full registry key path including the hive to search for. You might like to specify a single "name" of the name of the registry entry. If you want to delete all the paths, basically all the Windows Registry tree but if you want only the single entry you need also to specify the "name" of it. Please be careful! The essential parameter for our use-case is "state" to specify if we would like to add or modify ("present" option) or remove ("absent" option).

Playbook

How to Remove Windows Registry key on Windows-like systems accessing the Windows Registry with Ansible Playbook. Specifically, I'm going to delete a Windows Registry key located in "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Test".

code

---
- name: windows registry remove
  hosts: all
  vars:
    mypath: 'HKLM:\Software\Test'
  tasks:
    - name: registry remove path
      ansible.windows.win_regedit:
        path: "{{ mypath }}"
        state: absent

execution

ansible-pilot $ ansible-playbook -i virtualmachines/win/inventory windows/registry_remove.yml
PLAY [windows registry remove] ********************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] ****************************************************************************
ok: [WindowsServer]
TASK [registry remove path] ***********************************************************************
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_remove.yml
PLAY [windows registry remove] ********************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] ****************************************************************************
ok: [WindowsServer]
TASK [registry remove path] ***********************************************************************
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

code with ❤️ in GitHub

Conclusion

Now you know how to remove the Windows Registry key on Windows-like systems with Ansible.

Remove Registry Key

- name: Remove registry key
  ansible.windows.win_regedit:
    path: HKLM:\SOFTWARE\MyApp
    state: absent
    delete_key: true

Remove Registry Value

- name: Remove specific value
  ansible.windows.win_regedit:
    path: HKLM:\SOFTWARE\MyApp
    name: LicenseKey
    state: absent

Create/Set Registry Values

# String value
- ansible.windows.win_regedit:
    path: HKLM:\SOFTWARE\MyApp
    name: InstallPath
    data: C:\Program Files\MyApp
    type: string

# DWORD (integer)
- ansible.windows.win_regedit:
    path: HKLM:\SOFTWARE\MyApp
    name: MaxConnections
    data: 100
    type: dword

# Multi-string
- ansible.windows.win_regedit:
    path: HKLM:\SOFTWARE\MyApp
    name: AllowedHosts
    data:
      - server1.example.com
      - server2.example.com
    type: multistring

Common Registry Tweaks

Disable Windows Update auto-restart

- ansible.windows.win_regedit:
    path: HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU
    name: NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers
    data: 1
    type: dword

Set default browser

- ansible.windows.win_regedit:
    path: HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Associations\UrlAssociations\https\UserChoice
    name: ProgId
    data: ChromeHTML
    type: string

Disable remote desktop NLA

- ansible.windows.win_regedit:
    path: HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\WinStations\RDP-Tcp
    name: UserAuthentication
    data: 0
    type: dword

Backup Before Modifying

- name: Export registry backup
  ansible.windows.win_shell: |
    reg export "HKLM\SOFTWARE\MyApp" C:\Backup\myapp-reg-backup.reg /y
  register: backup

- name: Modify registry
  ansible.windows.win_regedit:
    path: HKLM:\SOFTWARE\MyApp
    name: Setting
    data: NewValue
    type: string

Registry Data Types

Type	win_regedit type	Description
REG_SZ	`string`	String
REG_DWORD	`dword`	32-bit integer
REG_QWORD	`qword`	64-bit integer
REG_BINARY	`binary`	Binary data
REG_MULTI_SZ	`multistring`	List of strings
REG_EXPAND_SZ	`expandstring`	String with env vars

Registry Hives

Short	Full Path
HKLM	HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
HKCU	HKEY_CURRENT_USER
HKCR	HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
HKU	HKEY_USERS

FAQ

How do I check if a registry key exists?

- ansible.windows.win_reg_stat:
    path: HKLM:\SOFTWARE\MyApp
    name: InstallPath
  register: reg_check

- debug:
    msg: "Exists: {{ reg_check.exists }}, Value: {{ reg_check.value }}"

Can I import a .reg file?

- ansible.windows.win_command: reg import C:\configs\settings.reg

Does win_regedit require a reboot?

The registry change is immediate, but some Windows features only read registry at boot/service start.

Category: installation

Watch the video: Ansible win_regedit: Manage Windows Registry Keys & Values (Examples) — Video Tutorial

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