C# Edit Registry Keys or Values

 

First

Before starting to edit registry values/keys, include in your project’s source this namespace Microsoft.Win32. It will give you access to the required Registry functions.

So, make sure you add this:

using Microsoft.Win32;

In order to edit anything, you must:

1. open the key where you want to edit (set a path)
2. add/delete/edit what you want
3. close the key

Note: in this tutorial I used Windows’ startup Key (path), but you can use anything you want.

So your snippet will look like this:

//this is how your key will look like
//the 2nd argument (true) is indicating that the key is writable
RegistryKey key = Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey(@"Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run", true);

//here you put the code to edit/delete values or subkeys
//which are found in: 'Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run'

//and finally, you close the key
key.Close();

Creating a Key

A key is a subfolder, in which you can add multiple values.
To create a key:

RegistryKey key = Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey(@"Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run", true);

//create a new key 
key.CreateSubKey("someKey");

key.Close();

Deleting a Key

In order to delete a key, you have to do the same thing: set the path then simply delete it.

RegistryKey key = Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey(@"Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run", true);

//deleting 'someKey'
key.DeleteSubKey("someKey");

key.Close();

Adding/Editing a value

Before doing this, you have to set the path to the key where you want to add that value. You can use the code below for adding or editing values.

RegistryKey key = Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey(@"Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\someKey", true);

//adding/editing a value 
key.SetValue("someValue", "someData"); //sets 'someData' in 'someValue' 

key.Close();

Reading a value

You can get a value from a key by knowing its name:

RegistryKey key = Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey(@"Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\someKey", true);

//getting the value
string data = key.GetValue("someValue").ToString();  //returns the text found in 'someValue'

key.Close();

Deleting a value

And finally, when we got bored of values, we can delete them:

RegistryKey key = Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey(@"Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run", true);

//deleting the value
key.DeleteValue("someValue");

key.Close();