[Undertaker989]

I need a program that can take snapshots before and after an install of a program to detect exactly what changes were made.

I downloaded a 'diff' tool that takes teh difference of the text in 2 files, but regedit didn't allow me to export the whole registry hive. It gave me a disc read error.

[Brofar]

Then your registry is fooked I think ... or more like your HDD...

[Undertaker989]

a corrupted reg file is a good possibility as my computer's mobo causes it to crash every so often, sometimes leaving the registry "restored" from a damaged state.

nevertheless, I need to monitor my registry before I install a program, and I can't format.

[j0k3r]

Download a trial of my company's software and take a snapshot:
http://www.wise.com/dev_evaluations.asp

You only need the one that is 9MB:
http://www.wise.com/event_formframe....wis&event=2930

After you install it, open it and from the File menu, select New. In the New Installation File dialog, select SetupCapture and click OK. Click the Settings button and tell it to watch changes in hardware registry entries, click OK. Click Next and it will take an initial snapshot of your computer. When it is done, browse to the executable you want to run and click the Execute button. After you are done installing, click Next, click Next again, to take the End capture. Click Finish when the End Capture completes. Click the View menu and select Installation Expert. On the left side of the screen if you don't have a huge list of things, select the Pages menu and click All. Scroll down on the left side until you see registry and then you will be able to see the things changed and added as part of the installation.

Let me know if you need help.