Adding a registry key in windows with quotes needed in the data using a batch script

Trey picture Trey · Mar 5, 2012 · Viewed 38.7k times · Source

Little Willis here. I am trying to using a batch script to edit an existing registry key that is used when double clicking a .jar file. The issue is that the data that I'm trying to enter contains quotes but I also need quotes for it to be considered a string.

Example:

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\jarfile\shell\open\command" /v "" /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /d "C:\Program Files\Java\jre7\bin\javaw.exe" -jar "%1" %* /f

When I run that in a batch script the cmd window prints out "Error: Too many command line parameters"

So to make this simple. I want to add a registry key with "C:\Program Files\Java\jre7\bin\javaw.exe" -jar "%1" %* as the data including the quotations and the %1 and %* exactly as they are not converted to any actual statement or string.

EDIT:

The registry is normally added using using this command line string:

ftype jarfile="C:\Program Files\Java\jre7\bin\javaw.exe" -jar "%1" %*  

it works fine in the command line, but just as the code given below when I used this in a batch script the "%1" and %* don't appear.

Answer

Marc picture Marc · Mar 5, 2012

Use backslashes to escape the inner quotes, i.e.:

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\jarfile\shell\open\command" /v "" /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /d "\"C:\Program Files\Java\jre7\bin\javaw.exe\" -jar \"%1\" %*" /f