Reading from and Writing to the Registry Using the Microsoft.Win32 Namespace
Although My.Computer.Registry should cover your basic needs when programming against the registry, you can also use the Registry and RegistryKey classes in the Microsoft.Win32 namespace of the .NET Framework.
Keys in the Registry Class
The Registry class supplies the base registry keys that can be used to access subkeys and their values. The base keys themselves are read-only. The following table lists and describes the seven keys exposed by the Registry class.
Key |
Description |
|---|---|
Defines the types of documents and the properties associated with those types. |
|
Contains hardware configuration information that is not user-specific. |
|
Contains information about the current user preferences, such as environmental variables. |
|
Contains dynamic registry data, such as that used by Virtual Device Drivers. |
|
Contains five subkeys (Hardware, SAM, Security, Software, and System) that hold the configuration data for the local computer. |
|
Contains performance information for software components. |
|
Contains information about the default user preferences. |
.gif "Security note") Security Note: |
|---|
It is more secure to write data to the current user (CurrentUser) than to the local computer (LocalMachine). A condition that's typically referred to as "squatting" occurs when the key you are creating was previously created by another, possibly malicious, process. To prevent this from occurring, use a method, such as GetValue, that returns Nothing if the key does not already exist. |
Reading a Value from the Registry
The following code shows how to read a string from HKEY_CURRENT_USER.
Dim regVersion As Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey
Dim keyValue As String
keyValue = "Software\\Microsoft\\TestApp\\1.0"
regVersion = Microsoft.Win32.Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey(keyValue, False)
Dim intVersion As Integer = 0
If (Not regVersion Is Nothing) Then
intVersion = regVersion.GetValue("Version", 0)
regVersion.Close()
End If
The following code reads, increments, and then writes a string to HKEY_CURRENT_USER.
Dim regVersion As Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey
regVersion = Microsoft.Win32.Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey( _
"SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\TestApp\\1.0", True)
If regVersion Is Nothing Then
' Key doesn't exist; create it.
regVersion = Microsoft.Win32.Registry.CurrentUser.CreateSubKey( _
"SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\TestApp\\1.0")
End If
Dim intVersion As Integer = 0
If (Not regVersion Is Nothing) Then
intVersion = regVersion.GetValue("Version", 0)
intVersion = intVersion + 1
regVersion.SetValue("Version", intVersion)
regVersion.Close()
End If
See Also
Tasks
Troubleshooting: Manipulating the Registry
Concepts
Structured Exception Handling Overview for Visual Basic
Reading from and Writing to the Registry Using My