function Open-Registry{
    [CmdletBinding()]
    [Alias("regJump")]
    param(
        [Parameter(Position=0)]
    	$regKey
    )
    #check for clipbaord only if no argument provided
    if (!$regKey){
        #split the clipboard content by crlf and get of trailing crlf in case clipboard populated via piping it to clip.exe
		$cmd = {
			Add-Type -Assembly PresentationCore
			[Windows.Clipboard]::GetText() -split "`r`n" | where {$_}
		}
        #in case its run from the powershell commandline
	    if([Threading.Thread]::CurrentThread.GetApartmentState() -eq 'MTA') {
		    $regKey = & powershell -STA -Command $cmd
	    }
        else {
		    $regKey = & $cmd
	    }
    }
    foreach ($key in $regKey){
        $replacers = @{
            'HKCU:?\\'='HKEY_CURRENT_USER\'
            'HKLM:?\\'='HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\'
            'HKU:?\\'='HKEY_USERS\'
            'HKCC:?\\'='HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG\'
            'HKCR:?\\'='HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\'
        }
        #replace hive shortnames with or without PowerShell Syntax + remove trailing backslash
        $properKey = $key
	    $replacers.GetEnumerator() | foreach {
		    $properKey = $properKey.ToUpper() -replace $_.Key, $_.Value -replace '\\$'
	    }
        #check if the path points to an existing key or its parent is an existing value
        #add one level since we don't want the first iteration of the loop to remove a level
        $path = "$properKey\dummyFolder"
        #test the registry path and revert to parent path until valid path is found otherwise return $false
        while(Split-Path $path -OutVariable path){
            $providerPath = $providerPath = "Registry::$path"
            if (Test-Path $providerPath){
               break
            }
        }
        if ($path){
	        Set-ItemProperty HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Regedit\ -Name LastKey -Value $path -Force
            #start regedit using m switch to allow for multiple instances
            $regeditInstance = [Diagnostics.Process]::Start("regedit","-m")
            #wait the regedit window to appear
            while ($regeditInstance.MainWindowHandle -eq 0){
                sleep -Milliseconds 100
            }
        }
        else{
            Write-Warning "Neither ""$key"" nor any of its parents does exist"
        }
    }
}