Registry Scan

[oskardiazdeleon]

I have been working with RegistryKeys (Create, Delete, Modify) however i do not know how to read the whole registry. I am looking for certain keys, but they end up being all over the place. I need to be able to identify their exact path. I am working in Windows Forms C# Thanks

[Nader Elshehabi]

Hello

oskardiazdeleon wrote:

i do not know how to read the whole registry

The registry is a tree of keys. The main 5 are present in the System.Win32.Registry Class. You can access them one by one using recursive calling to scan all subkeys but that will be very lenthy!!

oskardiazdeleon wrote:

I need to be able to identify their exact path.

Be carful when -or if- you scan the registry of similar names. You should identify your key by its full name. Besides the registry structue is quite constant for a given windows version. What you are looking for will probably be in the same location on other machines running the same version.

Regards:rose:

[oskardiazdeleon]

Thank you for replying. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge. Are there functions within the Registry class that would allow me to scan it? Im assuming i have to setup a while statement to read through each key within the the tree. Would you have any idea of how to start off the syntax? Thank you I appreciate your help

[Nader Elshehabi]

Hello Not a while loop. Here is a sample code of how to go through all keys in the registry using foreach loops and recursive function calling:

private void ScanRegistry()
    {
        RegistryKey Key;
        //Do somehting with the main 5 keys
        foreach (string subkey in Registry.ClassesRoot.GetSubKeyNames())
        {
            Key = Registry.ClassesRoot.OpenSubKey(subkey);
            MessageBox.Show(Key.Name);
            //Do somehting with the key
            ScanKey(Key);
        }
        foreach (string subkey in Registry.CurrentConfig.GetSubKeyNames())
        {
            Key = Registry.ClassesRoot.OpenSubKey(subkey);
            MessageBox.Show(Key.Name);
            //Do somehting with the key
            ScanKey(Key);
        }
        foreach (string subkey in Registry.CurrentUser.GetSubKeyNames())
        {
            Key = Registry.ClassesRoot.OpenSubKey(subkey);
            MessageBox.Show(Key.Name);
            //Do somehting with the key
            ScanKey(Key);
        }
        foreach (string subkey in Registry.DynData.GetSubKeyNames())
        {
            Key = Registry.ClassesRoot.OpenSubKey(subkey);
            MessageBox.Show(Key.Name);
            //Do somehting with the key
            ScanKey(Key);
        }
        foreach (string subkey in Registry.LocalMachine.GetSubKeyNames())
        {
            Key = Registry.ClassesRoot.OpenSubKey(subkey);
            MessageBox.Show(Key.Name);
            //Do somehting with the key
            ScanKey(Key);
        }
        foreach (string subkey in Registry.PerformanceData.GetSubKeyNames())
        {
            Key = Registry.ClassesRoot.OpenSubKey(subkey);
            MessageBox.Show(Key.Name);
            //Do somehting with the key
            ScanKey(Key);
        }
        foreach (string subkey in Registry.Users.GetSubKeyNames())
        {
            Key = Registry.ClassesRoot.OpenSubKey(subkey);
            MessageBox.Show(Key.Name);
            //Do somehting with the key
            ScanKey(Key);
        }
    }

    private void ScanKey(RegistryKey Key)
    {
        //Do somehting with the key
        RegistryKey subKey;
        foreach (string subkeyname in Key.GetSubKeyNames())
        {