deleting a registry key

[nss]

I want to check the registry to see if a certain key TestViewBox exists. If it does, then I want to delete it (so all the stuff under it vanishes too - correct? ). Then I want to recreate it, and put in fresh entries under that key (a subkey and then values). I'm thinking:

	LONG res = RegOpenKeyEx(keyHandle1, "TestViewBox",
	0, KEY\_ALL\_ACCESS, &keyHandle2);
           
            if (res)

               {// means it exists, so delete it........`I need to know how` ); 

            //if its now been deleted or never existed then recreate it etc:

        
        RegCreateKeyEx(keyHandle1, "TestViewBox", 0, "", 
        REG\_OPTION\_NON\_VOLATILE, KEY\_ALL\_ACCESS, NULL,
        &keyHandle2, &disp);

     
       RegCreateKeyEx(keyHandle2, "MyTestApp", 0, "",
       REG\_OPTION\_NON\_VOLATILE, KEY\_ALL\_ACCESS, NULL,
       &keyHandle3, &disp);

       RegSetValueEx(keyHandle3, NumberOfBoxes,
   0, REG\_DWORD, (BYTE\*)&numberOfBoxes, sizeof(DWORD));

{

Of course I will be checking the returnvalues from each registry function....:)

[Lost User]

If RegOpenKeyEx does not fail it means that the key exists. You can then delete it with RegDeleteKey

[Stephane Rodriguez]

Use ::RegDeleteKey(). On Windows W9X, this deletes this key, subkeys and values. But on W2K/NT/XP, it doesn't, you have to delete the subkeys yourself (recursive key deletion before you can delete this key). PS : be sure to release the key handles as well. Like a lot of developers, you seem to mix all together and reuse handles without freeing them first.

[nss]

// Open the Software key under HKEY_CURRENT_USER.
RegOpenKeyEx(HKEY_CURRENT_USER, "Software",
0, KEY_ALL_ACCESS, &keyHandle1);

// Open the MyCompany key under Software.
	LONG res = RegOpenKeyEx(keyHandle1, "MyCompany4",
	0, KEY\_ALL\_ACCESS, &keyHandle2);

if (!res)
{
// Open the MyApplication key under MyCompany.
res = RegOpenKeyEx(keyHandle2, "MyApplication4",
0, KEY_ALL_ACCESS, &keyHandle3);
}

SO is this good? Am terrified I might erase the "SoftWare " key or something and destroy myself!!! So I need to know if its safe first....

       if (!res) 
            {

             res = RegDeleteKey(keyHandle2,"MyApplication4");

             }

         if (!res)
             {
              res = RegDeleteKey(keyHandle1, "MyCompany4");

             }

	RegCloseKey(keyHandle1);
	RegCloseKey(keyHandle2);
	RegCloseKey(keyHandle3);

(check res ) and Open the software key again and write the new subkeys.....

[Stephane Rodriguez]

I would replace this :

if (!res)
{
res = RegDeleteKey(keyHandle2,"MyApplication4");
}
if (!res)
{
res = RegDeleteKey(keyHandle1, "MyCompany4");
}
RegCloseKey(keyHandle1);
RegCloseKey(keyHandle2);
RegCloseKey(keyHandle3);

with this :

if (!res)
{
RegCloseKey(keyHandle3);
RegDeleteKey(keyHandle2,"MyApplication4");
}

RegCloseKey(keyHandle2);
res = RegDeleteKey(keyHandle1, "MyCompany4");

RegCloseKey(keyHandle1);

Don't use the same res variable for all keys. Add braces to combine the cases, instead of putting them sequentially.

[nss]

Thank you so much for the pointers....