Hello,

Iam up to a task of finding the shortcuts in the registry, this is successfully done.

But on querying the value of the shortcuts, by using RegQueryValueEx function, is problematic.

RegOpenKeyEx is doing good,

But RegQueryValueEx isn't working, i need to've a better understanding, any examples, iam Using VB to carry out the task.

Thanks In Advance

Here ia a sample code from AllApi

'This program needs 3 buttons Const REG_SZ = 1 ' Unicode nul terminated string Const REG_BINARY = 3 ' Free form binary Const HKEY_CURRENT_USER = &H80000001 Private Declare Function RegCloseKey Lib "advapi32.dll" (ByVal hKey As Long) As Long Private Declare Function RegCreateKey Lib "advapi32.dll" Alias "RegCreateKeyA" (ByVal hKey As Long, ByVal lpSubKey As String, phkResult As Long) As Long Private Declare Function RegDeleteValue Lib "advapi32.dll" Alias "RegDeleteValueA" (ByVal hKey As Long, ByVal lpValueName As String) As Long Private Declare Function RegOpenKey Lib "advapi32.dll" Alias "RegOpenKeyA" (ByVal hKey As Long, ByVal lpSubKey As String, phkResult As Long) As Long Private Declare Function RegQueryValueEx Lib "advapi32.dll" Alias "RegQueryValueExA" (ByVal hKey As Long, ByVal lpValueName As String, ByVal lpReserved As Long, lpType As Long, lpData As Any, lpcbData As Long) As Long Private Declare Function RegSetValueEx Lib "advapi32.dll" Alias "RegSetValueExA" (ByVal hKey As Long, ByVal lpValueName As String, ByVal Reserved As Long, ByVal dwType As Long, lpData As Any, ByVal cbData As Long) As Long Function RegQueryStringValue(ByVal hKey As Long, ByVal strValueName As String) As String     Dim lResult As Long, lValueType As Long, strBuf As String, lDataBufSize As Long     'retrieve nformation about the key     lResult = RegQueryValueEx(hKey, strValueName, 0, lValueType, ByVal 0, lDataBufSize)     If lResult = 0 Then         If lValueType = REG_SZ Then             'Create a buffer             strBuf = String(lDataBufSize, Chr$(0))             'retrieve the key's content             lResult = RegQueryValueEx(hKey, strValueName, 0, 0, ByVal strBuf, lDataBufSize)             If lResult = 0 Then                 'Remove the unnecessary chr$(0)'s                 RegQueryStringValue = Left$(strBuf, InStr(1, strBuf, Chr$(0)) - 1)             End If         ElseIf lValueType = REG_BINARY Then             Dim strData As Integer             'retrieve the key's value             lResult = RegQueryValueEx(hKey, strValueName, 0, 0, strData, lDataBufSize)             If lResult = 0 Then                 RegQueryStringValue = strData             End If         End If     End If End Function Function GetString(hKey As Long, strPath As String, strValue As String)     Dim Ret     'Open the key     RegOpenKey hKey, strPath, Ret     'Get the key's content     GetString = RegQueryStringValue(Ret, strValue)     'Close the key     RegCloseKey Ret End Function Sub SaveString(hKey As Long, strPath As String, strValue As String, strData As String)     Dim Ret     'Create a new key     RegCreateKey hKey, strPath, Ret     'Save a string to the key     RegSetValueEx Ret, strValue, 0, REG_SZ, ByVal strData, Len(strData)     'close the key     RegCloseKey Ret End Sub Sub SaveStringLong(hKey As Long, strPath As String, strValue As String, strData As String)     Dim Ret     'Create a new key     RegCreateKey hKey, strPath, Ret     'Set the key's value     RegSetValueEx Ret, strValue, 0, REG_BINARY, CByte(strData), 4     'close the key     RegCloseKey Ret End Sub Sub DelSetting(hKey As Long, strPath As String, strValue As String)     Dim Ret     'Create a new key     RegCreateKey hKey, strPath, Ret     'Delete the key's value     RegDeleteValue Ret, strValue     'close the key     RegCloseKey Ret End Sub Private Sub Command1_Click()     Dim strString As String     'Ask for a value     strString = InputBox("Please enter a value between 0 and 255 to be saved as a binary value in the registry.", App.Title)     If strString = "" Or Val(strString) > 255 Or Val(strString) < 0 Then         MsgBox "Invalid value entered ...", vbExclamation + vbOKOnly, App.Title         Exit Sub     End If     'Save the value to the registry     SaveStringLong HKEY_CURRENT_USER, "KPD-Team", "BinaryValue", CByte(strString) End Sub Private Sub Command2_Click()     'Get a string from the registry     Ret = GetString(HKEY_CURRENT_USER, "KPD-Team", "BinaryValue")     If Ret = "" Then MsgBox "No value found !", vbExclamation + vbOKOnly, App.Title: Exit Sub     MsgBox "The value is " + Ret, vbOKOnly + vbInformation, App.Title End Sub Private Sub Command3_Click()     'Delete the setting from the registry     DelSetting HKEY_CURRENT_USER, "KPD-Team", "BinaryValue"     MsgBox "The value was deleted ...", vbInformation + vbOKOnly, App.Title End Sub Private Sub Form_Load()     'KPD-Team 1998     'URL: http://www.allapi.net/     'E-Mail: KPDTeam@Allapi.net     Command1.Caption = "Set Value"     Command2.Caption = "Get Value"     Command3.Caption = "Delete Value" End Sub

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Hello Goran,

Thanks, your example really is good, but as iam only concerned in getting all the desktop shortcuts, i was just going through the RegQuery code in your example, as the DataType is REG_BINARY, can you plz just give me an understanding of this REGQUERY function


Thanks In Advance

RegQueryValueEx
- hKey identifies a currently opened key
- lpValueName contains the name of the value to be queried
- lpReserved must be null
- lpType will receive key's value type
- lpData points to a buffer that receives the value’s data
- lpcbData specifies the size, in bytes, of the buffer pointed to by the lpData parameter

So, first time RegQueryValueEx is called, we get lpType ( which in your case will be REG_BINARY, as you said) and lpcbData. Then we use lpcbData to create a buffer, which will be enough big to receive key's content. If we didnt do that, and buffer is not big enough, the function would return ERROR_MORE_DATA.

If I wasnt clear enough, ask what exactly you dont understand, and I will explain.

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hello goran

i've also send u an email, just thought to send u a msg here as well.

When i use that function one from the example that you suggessted, the Hive is opening, and the RegQueryValue function operates successfully too the first time, but when it's called again, on the basis of the REG_BINARY type, here i just need to know that "while calling the function, should we pass the HANDLE of the opened key to the hkey parameter, or the HKEY_CURRENT_USER as a parameter to hkey.

Because when i used the HANDLE variable it was successfull, as the lreturn, returned 0, but the second time on the basis of REG_BINARY, as it executed the function, vb was shutdown, the size that was returned was 4025 in the ldatabuffsize.


THanks Goran

It seems you are dealing with big values there, try this then:

Function RegQueryStringValue(ByVal hKey As Long, ByVal strValueName As String) As String Dim lResult As Long Dim lValueType As Long Dim strBuf As String Dim lDataBufSize As Long Dim strTemp As String Dim i As Integer     'retrieve nformation about the key     lResult = RegQueryValueEx(hKey, strValueName, 0, lValueType, ByVal 0, lDataBufSize)     'Create a buffer     strBuf = String(lDataBufSize, Chr$(0))     'retrieve the key's content     lResult = RegQueryValueEx(hKey, strValueName, 0, 0, ByVal strBuf, lDataBufSize)          If lResult = 0 And lValueType = REG_BINARY Then         For i = 1 To lDataBufSize            strTemp = Hex(Asc(Mid(strBuf, i, 1)))            If Len(strTemp) = 1 Then strTemp = "0" & strTemp            RegQueryStringValue = RegQueryStringValue + strTemp         Next     End If End Function

hKey is a handle of an opened key, handle of a key like HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Streams\Desktop, strValueName is a Value name like "Taskbar". See the above example how to get this handle.

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Hi Goran, thanks for the sample, I was able to read big binary strings but I was not able to write them back (only small binary string. (Here is a sample of the string that I need to write back

0100048084000000900000000000000014000000020070000400000000001800FF030F000102000000000005200000002002000000002400B1010000010500000000000515000000F11357004E304F4BC42DBF553D30000000001400FF030F0001010000000000051200000000001800A101000001020000000000052000000021020000010100000000000512000000010100000000000512000000

Any ideas?

thanks in advance.