Slava Murygin shows how to use Powershell to read the Registry:
Do you use third party tools to document state of your SQL Server?
If not, that script is for you!At first, you will know what is your SQL Server is up to.
At second, that might be your baseline document, to which you can compare a current SQL Server state over the time.
At third, that is a priceless piece of documentation!!! (I mean FREE!!!) which you can put in a folder and report to your boss.
Registry settings are a good part of a baseline, particularly a security baseline.