Multiple Commands on the Same Keys and Values Should be Shown in Top-right Pane

[BondingforToday]

Microsoft PowerToys version

0.69.1

Installation method

Microsoft Store

Running as admin

Yes

Area(s) with issue?

Registry Preview

Steps to reproduce

Type text as per screenshots

Here, it looks like the key is not ultimately deleted:

Here, it looks like the key is deleted whereas it is recreated:

✔️ Expected Behavior

Sometimes keys and values are deleted and recreated again in .reg files to clear them.
Multiple actions should be shown in the top-right pane.

Mockup:

❌ Actual Behavior

Currently, not all actions on the same key or value are reflected in the top-right pane.

Other Software

n/a

[randyrants]

Respectfully, I'm not touching this one. This topic came up, as part of the original PR, and I don't see a way to make it work that makes sense. Yes, a REG file can add and remove Keys, parsing it in real time, but how do you make sense of that as a preview?

• In one case, I can see a file that would remove a Key at the start of the file and then build up a new series of data in place of it but that should work here. You won't see the delete of the Key (or any child data, because that's not in the file) and, because it is overwritten by the addition of the same Key later in the file, it will show you all of the new data, which is a legitimate preview of what the final state will be in the Registry.
• For the situation called out above as the first example - where the file creates a Key and then delete it in the same file - doesn't sound like anything anyone would do on purpose. It's a good test case, for an edge or small usage example - one where the app obviously fails on! - but weighing that against the investment it would take to re-write the parser to handle this case would be... rather large.

Love having it as an active Idea-Enhancement, if someone wants to pick it up. Maybe it can be rolled into the proposed color coding of the file, as that will likely trigger a bunch of parsing changes (or re-writes.)

[htcfreek]

@randyrants
I added the "help-wanted" label to show that this is something the core team won't pick up and ask the community for help.