Registry key refuses to import. What am i missing?

Whelp, turns out it was in fact two different issues. The context menu .reg was purely the double backslash requirement.

The window position key from displayfusion was the fault of the software itself. I spoke with one of the devs and his response verbatim

"You need to export the settings via DisplayFusion (Settings > Options > Export). Windows doesn't export the line breaks correctly, so DF exports it as a base64 encoded string instead"

So, that guy has to come off my robocopy backup list as it'll never work right :P

Yikes, half a day and the harassment of all kindsa people online for that one lol. Thank you for trying though, i learned a little something so theres that!

Try3 said:

So when you said that things did not work you meant that the resulting application behaviour was not as expected - rather than the Registry key values were not as expected.

Similar situations are found with many Registry keys.
- If you find that making some particular setting in an application sets a Registry key to a particular value you cannot conclude that setting the Registry key will cause that application's setting to behave as though it had been changed the 'proper' way.
- For example, setting up Indexing through the UI sets some Registry keys [that list the Indexed locations]. But changing those Registry keys to point to different Indexed locations has no effect on Indexing as shown in the UI.
- There are some that are even more perverse. Using the UI [It's in Settings] to change the Titlebar colour changes a particular Registry key value. But changing that Registry key value does not change the setting shown in the UI. But it does change the Titlebar colour.
- There is no way of knowing how any given Registry key & related application / OS setting will behave in this respect. Unless you can find reliable reports from others, you have to just try it and see. And then reboot on the off-chance that it's one of those ones that needs it.

Denis

well the registry key values werent "not as expected" it literally did not merge. The oddest part about it all, is they DID merge if i used the file>import option in registry finder. Perhaps that translates the "base64 encoded string" whereas regedit does not. Still, it merges fine if you export via the app itself instead of the registry.
nothing ventured nothing gained i suppose. I assumed, a registry export was the same as say.. an image backup. its a 1:1 copy.

its nice to have software that affords an export settings option, but in cases like this it can certainly throw you for a loop. At least im saved from frustration until giving up.

relief! and on to solving more windows quirks before i can get back to doing the more fun stuff :P

I don't think this has been mentioned here but it is possible to create hidden keys and values. By using the Native NT functions software can create keys or values with embedded null characters. Since the normal functions used by Regedit and most other software uses a null character to terminate strings such keys and values will be inaccessible. To Regedit they simply do not exist. I know Windows uses this method and some third party software as well.