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olx

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retrieving the value of a registry key


Hi all

i need to retrieve the value of a key

"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Wordpad\Options", "Pagemargin"

ive tried several things and none works because it is a binary value.

i need to change the wordpad margins directly from an app.  Any ideas?
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rspahitz
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I guess the obvious answer is to decipher the binary then split it into pieces, make the changes, then re-assemble it.

I don't knwo what the various parts are, but I'm sure you can find out by changing settings (e.g. width) and observing the new registry value.  I suspect that since I see 16 bytes that either there are 8 double-bytes or 4 quad-bytes possibly representing the left/top/width/height settings (for 4 bytes each) or left/top/width/height/innerleft/innertop/innerwidth/innerheight (for 2 bytes each.)
Actually, after further investigation, it appears that these represent the left/top/right/bottom margins in twips.

I have 08-07-00-00 a0-05-00-00 08-07-00-00 a0-05-00-00 which appears to translate as follows:

08-07-00-00 = binary 00000708 = decimal 1800
a0-05-00-00 = binary 000005a0 = decimal 1440

The binary takes each byte from lowest to highest, so a0 is byte 1, 05 is byte 2, etc.

Decimal 1440 divided by 1440 twips-per-inch=1"
Decimal 1800 = 1.25"
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olx

ASKER

:)
actually what i need is to retrieve the values somehow to a variable.



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Well, how are you reading it now?
Once you have that, simply divide by 256 to extract the first byte and place it into a double-precision variable.  Multiply that value by 256 and subtract that number from the original to remove it from the binary.  Repeat for the next byte, but this time multiply it by 256 and add it to the double-precision variable.  Repeat a total of four times per field (left/top/right/bottom.)

That should give you a set of values in twips.  To get inches, either divide by 1440 or simply use:

debug.print Formname.ScaleX(Value, vbTwips, vbInches)
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Richie_Simonetti
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Excellent!

from www.allapi.net:

'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
Thanks, i was too late from my last comment!
Avatar of olx

ASKER


Excellent!

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