REG Matching

REG Matching

Changes made to the Windows registry happen immediately, and no backup is automatically made. Do not edit the Windows registry unless you are qualified and confident about doing so.

Microsoft have issued the following warning with respect to the Registry Editor:
“Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious, system-wide problems that may require you to re-install Windows to correct them. Microsoft cannot guarantee that any problems resulting from the use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use this tool at your own risk.”

TapeTrack supports matching against a list of patterns stored in the Windows Registry using the special filter prefix:

*REG:registry_value_name

Registry key name

This allows a filter field to be compared against multiple patterns defined centrally in the Windows Registry.

REG filtering is functionally similar to LIST filtering, however the patterns are stored in a registry value instead of a file.

How REG Matching Works

When a filter begins with:

 *REG:

TapeTrack will:

open the Windows Registry
locate the specified value name
read its contents
treat the contents as a semicolon-separated list of patterns
stop as soon as a match is found

Registry Backup

Backup the registry before any making any modifications

Open regedit and create registry backup by right-clicking the top of the registry tree and selecting Export and saving to an appropriate location.

Registry Location

Registry location:

 HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\GazillaByte\TapeTrack\Lists

Each registry value under this key represents a reusable filter list.

If the Key Lists does not exist, it will need to be added in the location HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\GazillaByte\TapeTrack\Lists

Example

Example set of Description values for Volumes in TapeMaster:

Production database weekly backup
Prod DB full backup
Prod data backup set
Production export dump
Development database backup
Weekly archive - finance system

Example Registry Value

Registry Key:

 HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\GazillaByte\TapeTrack\Lists

Create a new String Value named:

 ProdFilters

With the following data (semicolon-separated, no spaces):

*prod*;*PRD*;*production*

Using the REG Filter in TapeMaster

To filter the Description field using the registry list:

 *REG:ProdFilter

This will match any Description containing:

prod
PRD
production

Expected Matching Results

Using the filter:

 *REG:ProdFilter

The following descriptions would typically match:

Production database weekly backup
Prod DB full backup
Production export dump
PRD database BKP
Prod data backup set

The following descriptions would typically not match:

Development database backup
Weekly archive - finance system

Using Wildcards in REG Values

Each entry in the registry value supports standard TapeTrack wildcard matching.

Example registry value data:

 *backup*;*archive*;*dump*

This allows a single REG filter to match multiple categories of Description text.

When to Use REG vs LIST

Method	Storage Location	Best Used For
LIST	External text file	Shared configuration files
REG	Windows Registry	Centralised per-user configuration

REG filtering is especially useful in environments where:

administrators want centrally managed filter sets
users should not modify external files
reusable filter definitions are required across multiple tools

REG filtering provides a centralized, reusable method of matching a field against multiple wildcard patterns stored in the Windows Registry. It behaves the same as LIST filtering, but stores the pattern list inside:

 HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\GazillaByte\TapeTrack\Lists

This makes it ideal for controlled environments where filter rules need to be maintained per user or workstation.

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