Complete Registry control

The cRegistry class is an easy, self-contained way to get complete access to the Windows registry. Simple methods allow you to create, enumerate and delete keys and values in the registry, without restriction. You can even read/write binary data to the registry. To see how powerful this library is, download the demonstration Registry Editor, written entirely in VB. Its not far off RegEdit shipped with Windows (although note in my version not all the features are finished!)

Usage

Here is a brief summary of typical uses of the class:

To get a String Value from the Registry

    Dim c As New cRegistry 
    With c 
        .ClassKey = HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE 
        .SectionKey = "Software\MyApp\Tips" 
        .ValueKey = "Tip1" 
        .ValueType = REG_SZ 
        sTip = .Value 
    End With 

To get a Numeric Value from the Registry

    Dim c As New cRegistry 
    With c 
        .ClassKey = HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE 
        .SectionKey = "Software\MyApp\Tips" 
        .ValueKey = "TipCount" 
        .ValueType = REG_DWORD 
        lTipCount = .Value 
    End With 

To Save a Form's position to the Registry

    Dim c As New cRegistry 
    With c 
        .ClassKey = HKEY_CURRENT_USER 
        ' You don't need to check if this key already exists
        ' - the class will create it for you
        .SectionKey = "Software\" & App.ExeName & "\" & frmThis.Name
        .ValueKey = "Maximized" 
        .ValueType = REG_DWORD 
        .Value = (frmThis.WindowState = vbMaximized) 
        If (frmThis.WindowState <> vbMaximized) 
            .ValueKey = "Left" 
            .Value = frmThis.Left 
            .ValueKey = "Top" 
            .Value = frmThis.Top 
            .ValueKey = "Width" 
            .Value = frmThis.Width 
            .ValueKey = "Height" 
            .Value = frmThis.Height 
        End If 
    End With 

To Get All The SubKeys of a Key

Note you can also get all the values for a key in a similar way, except you use EnumerateValues instead of EnumerateSections.

    Dim c As New cRegistry 
    Dim sKeys() As String, iKeyCount As Long 

    With c 
        .ClassKey = HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE 
        .SectionKey = "Software"
        .EnumerateSections(sKeys(), iKeyCount)
        For iKey = 1 To iKeyCount
            Debug.Print sKeys(iKey)
        Next iKey
    End With 

To Delete a Key

    Dim c As New cRegistry 
    With c 
        .ClassKey = HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE 
        .SectionKey = "Software\MyApp\Tips" 
        .DeleteKey 
    End With 

To Delete a Value

    Dim c As New cRegistry 
    With c 
        .ClassKey = HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE 
        .SectionKey = "Software\MyApp\Tips" 
        .ValueKey = "Tip1" 
        .DeleteValue 
    End With 

To Associate a File of type .CCD with your executable

    Dim c As New cRegistry 
    With c 
        .CreateEXEAssociation _
            App.Path & "\" & App.ExeName, _
            "CCarDesign.Project", _
            "Custom Car Designer Project", _
            "CCD"
    End With 

To Read BINARY values from the registry

Binary values are returned as a variant of type byte array. This code demonstrates how to format the returned value into a string of hexadecimal values, similar to the display provided in RegEdit:

    Dim cR As New cRegistry
    Dim iByte As Long
    Dim vR as Variant

    With cR
        .ClassKey = HKEY_CURRENT_USER
        .SectionKey = "Control Panel\Appearance"
        .ValueKey = "CustomColors"
        vR = .Value

        If .ValueType = REG_BINARY Then
        ' Read through the byte array and output it as a series of hex values:
        For iByte = LBound(vR) To UBound(vR)
            sOut = sOut & "&H"
            If (iByte<&H10) Then
                sOut = sOut & "0"
            End If
            sOut = sOut & Hex$(vR(iByte)) & " " 
            Next iByte
        Else
            sOut = vR
        End If

        Debug.Print sOut
    End With

To Set BINARY values from the registry

Similarly, to store binary values in the registry, cRegistry.cls expects a byte array of the binary values you wish to store. This example (rather uselessly!) stores all the Red, Green, Blue values of each of VB's QBColors into a binary array:

    Dim cR As New cRegistry
    Dim i As Long
    Dim lC As Long
    Dim bR As Byte
    Dim bG As Byte
    Dim bB As Byte
    Dim bOut() As Byte

    ' Create a binary array containing all the Red,Green,Blue values of the QBColors:
    ReDim bOut(0 To 15 * 3 - 1) As Byte
    For i = 1 To 15
        ' Get the Red, Green, Blue for the QBColor at index i:
        lC = QBColor(i)
        bR = (lC And &HFF&)
        bG = ((lC And &HFF00&) \ &H100&)
        bB = ((lC And &HFF0000) \ &H10000)
    
        ' Add Red, Green, Blue to the byte array to store:
        bOut((i - 1) * 3) = bR
        bOut((i - 1) * 3 + 1) = bG
        bOut((i - 1) * 3 + 2) = bB
    Next i

    ' Store it:
    With cR
        .ClassKey = HKEY_CURRENT_USER
        .SectionKey = "software\vbaccelerator\cRegistry\Binary Test"
        .ValueKey = "QBColors"
        .ValueType = REG_BINARY
        .Value = bOut()
    End With

Daniel Henry has written an article which provides a wrapper around this class to make things even simpler. Have a look at cRegistry Wrapper.