I was interested in the answer to this question also. I tried the API call several different ways and they all failed. The problem is that some of the binary characters can't be duplicated, i.e, if you look in the registry there are sets of numbers to the left and then strange looking characters to the right. I found I could write the strange chartacters to a file, then read the file and write the strange characters to the registry, all except for one character, the one representing the number 7F. Is there a way to convert 7F to the funny character before I plug it in?