Converting different registry value types to string?

Question

Hi, im traversing through the registry, taking the values of the keys and storing them as strings. I have discovered there are many different types. Some of these types are causing my filestream writer to fail. Is it possible to convert all of the below into a string form. The actual data value is not important, just the ability to differentiate between different values.

• DWORD
• ExpandString
• Binary (is this just the same as byte[] ?)
• MultiString

-

if (String.Compare(SubKey.GetValueKind(v[i]).ToString(), "String") == 0)
{
    String s = SubKey.GetValue(v[i]).ToString();

    RegistryKeyDataValue rkdv = new RegistryKeyDataValue(s); 
    rkdv.incrementNumberOfTimesUsed();
    rkdv.setTypeOfData("S");

    r.addDataValue(rkdv);
    r.setCurrentDataValue(s);

    String hash = "";
    h.setHashData(hash); 

    hash = h.HashString(s);
}

I'm having problems later on because i want to write the values to a file and i need to convert all different types to a string.

Answer 1

You should take a look into the Registry.GetValue() description. Within the example all of these types are converted into a string.

Answer 2

There already is a decent standard for writing registry values as strings to a file. In Regedit.exe, use File + Export after selecting a key to see what that looks like. Documentation is available in this KB article.