Skip to content

Read an entry from the registry

Lets you retrieve information from the Windows Registry. You can for example read information such as the user’s name or the destination directory for your files.

Property Name Data Type Description
Access regaccess Request access to the 32-bit or 64-bit Windows Registry view. Please refer to the paragraph entitled Accessing an Alternate Registry View. Default is regaDefault
Ident String The named entry within the registry key. Leave this field blank to read the default value associated to the key.
Key String The key name of the registry entry. Like SOFTWARE\My App
RootKey hkKeys The base key of your registration entry. There is a defined set of Base Keys from which you can choose in the list box.
Variable VarName The name of the variable whose value will be set to what has been read. If the entry is not found, a blank value is returned.

Paquet Builder can read the following entry types:

  • REG_SZ

  • REG_EXPAND_SZ

  • REG_DWORD

  • REG_QWORD It automatically converts them to string values when storing them in variables.

Reading destination path from registry

You can use the feature to read the default destination path from the Windows Registry. However do not assign the path to the %DESTPATH% variable which is read-only. First read the path to a specific variable like %MYPATH% and then in the default destination folder field, enter %MYPATH%. For more information about setting the destination folder, please click here.

If you want to read registry data from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, please note that 32-bit packages can't access HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE directly, but the Wow6432Node key instead. See https://www.itprotoday.com/systems-management/whats-wow6432node-under-hkeylocalmachinesoftware-registry-subkey

The solution is to use the Access property and choose regaWOW64_64KEY. Or better you can consider making a 64-bit package with Paquet Builder.

All available actions