How To Get Value From Registry Entry

[jmsrickland]

Given the following Registry Info how do I extract the value from a SubItem?

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\RealNetworks\RealPlayer\version

By looking into the registry the value of version is 6.0.14.806. How do I code to get that value into a variable?

[westconn1]

how you want to do?
apis or scripting

edit, here is a very simple script example

      Dim wsh, str
on error resume next
      Set wsh = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

         str = wsh.RegRead("HKCR\.pid\") ' change to suit your key
'msgbox err.number
'	if err.number = "-2147024894" then str = "filetype not registered"
     msgbox str

[Edgemeal]

Heres a module I made just for reading HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE sinces thats pretty much all I ever need anyway.

Debug.Print sdaGetRegEntry("SOFTWARE\RealNetworks\RealPlayer\", "version")

[jmsrickland]

how you want to do?
apis or scripting

edit, here is a very simple script example

      Dim wsh, str
on error resume next
      Set wsh = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

         str = wsh.RegRead("HKCR\.pid\") ' change to suit your key
'msgbox err.number
'	if err.number = "-2147024894" then str = "filetype not registered"
     msgbox str

Nope, returns an empty value. I did subsitute with my key like this

str = wsh.RegRead("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\RealNetworks\RealPlayer\version")

and also like this:

str = wsh.RegRead("HKLM\SOFTWARE\RealNetworks\RealPlayer\version")

[schoolbusdriver]

You'll may have to explicitly declare the variable types if you're doing it in VB6 rather than a vbs script. i.e.

Private Sub Form_Load()
   Dim WshShell   As Object
   Dim strValue   As String
   
   Set WshShell = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
   MsgBox WshShell.RegRead("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\RealNetworks\RealPlayer\version")
End Sub

[westconn1]

i tested code in vb6, did not return for that key as i don't have, but worked ok for others
try a \ at the end of the string if it is a default value rather than a named value

"HKLM\SOFTWARE\RealNetworks\RealPlayer\version\"

[jmsrickland]

Below works

 Dim WshShell   As Object
 Dim strValue   As String
   
 Set WshShell = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
 strValue = WshShell.RegRead("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\RealNetworks\RealPlayer\version")

Below also works

 Dim VersionNumber As String

 VersionNumber = sdaGetRegEntry("SOFTWARE\RealNetworks\RealPlayer", "version")

Now here is where neither one works and I don't understand why.

On this one I get a Type Mismatch

 Dim WshShell   As Object
 Dim strValue   As String
   
 Set WshShell = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
 strValue = WshShell.RegRead("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\1\Desktop\ItemPos1024x768(1)")

And on this one.....

Please note that in the function sdaGetRegEntry

I changed this:
If Not ERROR_SUCCESS = RegOpenKeyEx(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, strSubKeys, 0&, KEY_READ, lngHandle) Then Exit Function

to this:

If Not ERROR_SUCCESS = RegOpenKeyEx(HKEY_CURRENT_USER, strSubKeys, 0&, KEY_READ, lngHandle) Then Exit Function

....and it just returns a null value.

 Dim Positions As String

 Positions = sdaGetRegEntry("Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\1\Desktop", "ItemPos1024x768(1)")

[westconn1]

Dim WshShell As Object
Dim strValue() As Variant

Set WshShell = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
strValue = WshShell.RegRead("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\1\Desktop\ItemPos1024x768( 1)")

this works for me, but only as a variant OR variant array
returns an array of
0 to 3423 on my computer
it maybe that it should return a TYPE of some sort

[schoolbusdriver]

Windows Scripting Host can't be used to retrieve strings from REG_BINARY entries, only numbers. It can't cope with UDTs either - there's a limit to the size of the returned array that it can handle.

EDIT: I had put some API code in here that would put REG_BINARY data in a UDT, but looking at the registry entry again, I've realised it contains an arry of UDTs. You'll first need to deduce the structure of the data the ValueName contains. Right-click in regedit and pick "Modify binary data" to copy/paste...