Is there a way to get a new registry recognized without rebooting?

Question

Is there a way to get a new registry recognized without rebooting? I'm adding

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\EnableLinkedConnections

Answer 1

That all depends on the application that is using the registry key. When a key is updated, it is updated, but an application my only look at the key at startup. Rebooting is just a simple way of ensuring that the new key is loaded.

Answer 2

The best way to get the registry refreshed is to kill the Explorer.exe process via Task Manager. That way, the registry is reloaded (on old trick that has worked since Windows 95).

Although I am not sure if the entire registry or only part of it is reloaded, @Gnoupi 's advice to logout and log back in helps as well.

Answer 3

I just wonder if you can identify a service that integrates with the registry setting, and just restart that service. A wild guess, would restarting the workstation or server service circumvent a reboot? Else any of those services beginning with Microsoft or Windows.

Answer 4

From what I read here, this registry key is about this:

This value enables Windows Vista to share network connections between the filtered access token and the full administrator access token for a member of the Administrators group. After you configure this registry value, LSA checks whether there is another access token that is associated with the current user session if a network resource is mapped to an access token. If LSA determines that there is a linked access token, it adds the network share to the linked location.

The key itself is updated and valid in the registry as soon as you modify it, like headyd said. However, this will most likely be read by the system only at logon time, so you will have to reboot, or at least log again.

Registry is like a database of parameters available for programs. But it's only a place to read and store parameters, it won't trigger an update in the concerned programs when you change a value.