Add registry entries for all users

Question

I've installed a software on my windows 8 computer which writes entries in my registry. How can I modify this registry entries for all users ? For example what I need to modify is values from this key but this key only refers to a single user:

[HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-543895283-3741240661-2983116896-500\Software\IvoSoft\ClassicStartMenu\Settings]

But "S-1-5-21-543895283-3741240661-2983116896-500" is different depending on the user name. How can I change that key for all users ?

I've tried to work with this key but is not possible.

[HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-*\Software\IvoSoft\ClassicStartMenu\Settings]

Solution

Only the current user's registry(hive) is loaded which makes it hard to update the registry-hives for other/all users.

That's why usually changes to multiple users-registries are done through logon-scripts or group policies. This usually requires a Windows domain infrastructure.

Another approach is to loop through all user accounts on a machine. For each accound, load the user-hives into the current registry, make changes and unload the hive again. This requires a bit of scripting.

Luckily, someone else already did the work. I found a script that does exactly what you want:

update-a-registry-key-for-all-users-on-a-system

I haven't tested it, but it looks good.