Registry.GetValue always return null

Question

I have the following key in my registry:

under:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\RSA I have value object call - WebExControlManagerPath and its

Answer 1

look at the security permissions on the registry key with regedt32.exe; check if you are running as admin and have UAC turned off. According to the opensubkey documentation it needs to be opened first before accessing any keys; http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/z9f66s0a.aspx

Answer 2

None of the solutions here worked for me, I was still getting null returned from my registry read. I finally found a solution which worked for me, based on an amalgamation of the answers above. Thanks to all for pointing me in the right direction.

I appreciate that I am late to the party, but I thought that this may help others if the above solutions do not work for them.

This function is part of a class:

/// <summary>
/// Gets the specified setting name.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="settingName">Name of the setting.</param>
/// <returns>Returns Setting if the read was successful otherwise, "undefined".</returns>
public static string get(string settingName)
{
    RegistryKey key;

    if (Environment.Is64BitOperatingSystem)
        key = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey(@"SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\MyCompany\MyProductName", false);
    else
        key = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey(@"SOFTWARE\MyCompany\MyProductName", false);

    try
    {
        String value = (String)key.GetValue(settingName);

        return value;
    }
    catch
    {
        // Null is not returned as in this case, it is a valid value.

        return "undefined";
    }
    finally
    {
        key.Close();
    }
}

Answer 3

I had extra "\" in the beginning of my path, make sure that is set right.

Answer 4

if you are using 64 bit operating system, when you are trying to get HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\RSA it is actually looking for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\RSA that is why you get null

Answer 5

The statement of Jason is right, the operating system is the problem, the below code will help you to resolve.

RegistryKey localKey;
if(Environment.Is64BitOperatingSystem)
    localKey = RegistryKey.OpenBaseKey(RegistryHive.LocalMachine, RegistryView.Registry64);
else
    localKey = RegistryKey.OpenBaseKey(RegistryHive.LocalMachine, RegistryView.Registry32);

string value = localKey.OpenSubKey("RSA").GetValue("WebExControlManagerPth").ToString();

Answer 6

You don't access the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE hive the same way you do in C# as you would in batch scripting. You call Registry.LocalMachine, as such:

        RegistryKey myKey = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey( @"Software\RSA", false);
        String value = (String)myKey.GetValue("WebExControlManagerPth");

        if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(value))
        {
            ProcessAsUser.Launch(ToString());
        }

Update:

If it returns null, set your build architecture to Any CPU. The operating system may virtualize 32-bit and 64-bit registries differently. See: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa965884%28v=vs.85%29.aspx, Reading 64bit Registry from a 32bit application, and http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms724072%28v=vs.85%29.aspx.