regedit stores its last-key-position at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Regedit\LastKey This is what it uses to know where to start up at. There are several utilities to make an already-running regedit.exe jump to a specific key: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963880.aspx (SysInternal's RegJump) http://www.codeproject.com/KB/applications/RegEditGo.aspx