How To Use RAPI to Add Keys and Values to the Registry on a Remote Windows CE Device

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This article was previously published under Q306368

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SUMMARY

You can use the Remote APIs (RAPI) from Visual Basic to add keys and values to the registry on remote Windows CE-based devices, such as a Pocket PC.

This article demonstrates how to call the RAPI functions to add keys, subkeys, and string and DWORD values to the registry on the remote devices.

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MORE INFORMATION

WARNING: One or more of the following functions are discussed in this article; VarPrt, VarPtrArray, VarPtrStringArray, StrPtr, ObjPtr. These functions are not supported by Microsoft Technical Support. They are not documented in the Visual Basic documentation and are provided in this Knowledge Base article "as is". Microsoft does not guarantee that they will be available in future releases of Visual Basic.

Performing calls to RAPI functions from Visual Basic can be somewhat complicated. RAPI functions are UNICODE, and Visual Basic automatically converts strings from UNICODE to ANSI when you call API functions. To prevent Visual Basic from doing the conversion, you must use the StrPtr function to get the address of the UNICODE string buffer and pass it to the RAPI functions. The following example illustrates this process:

Create a new Standard EXE project in Visual Basic.
Place a command button on Form1.

Paste the following code into Form1's code module:

Option Explicit

Private Sub Command1_Click()
       Dim lret As Long
       Dim lcon As Long
       
       ' Initialize RAPI
       lcon = ConnectRapi
       If lcon <> ERROR_SUCCESS Then
          MsgBox "Failure to initialize RAPI"
       Else
          MsgBox "RAPI was initialized successfully"
       End If
       
       lret = CreateCERegistryKeys
       
        ' Uninitialize RAPI
       lcon = DisconnectRapi
       If lcon <> ERROR_SUCCESS Then
          MsgBox "Failure to uninitialize RAPI"
       Else
          MsgBox "RAPI was uninitialized successfully"
       End If
End Sub

From the Project menu, click Add Module to add a .bas module to the project.

Paste the following code into Module1:

Option Explicit

Public Const HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT = &H80000000
Public Const HKEY_CURRENT_USER = &H80000001
Public Const HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE = &H80000002
Public Const ERROR_SUCCESS = 0
Public Const REG_DWORD = 4
Public Const REG_SZ = 1

Type RAPIINIT
    cbsize As Long
    heRapiInit As Long
    hrRapiInit As Long
End Type

Public Declare Function CeRapiUninit Lib "rapi.dll" () As Long

Public Declare Function CeRapiInitEx Lib "rapi.dll" ( _
    pRapiInit As RAPIINIT) As Long

Public Declare Function CeRegCreateKeyEx Lib "rapi.dll" ( _
    ByVal hKey As Long, _
    ByVal lpSubKey As Long, _
    ByVal Reserved As Long, _
    ByVal lpclass As Long, _
    ByVal dwOptions As Long, _
    ByVal samDesired As Long, _
    ByVal lpSecurityAttributes As Long, _
    phkResult As Long, _
    lpdwdisposition As Long) As Long

Public Declare Function CeRegOpenKeyEx Lib "rapi.dll" ( _
    ByVal hKey As Long, _
    ByVal lpSubKey As Long, _
    ByVal ulOptions As Long, _
    ByVal samDesired As Long, _
    phkResult As Long) As Long

Public Declare Function CeRegQueryValueEx Lib "rapi.dll" ( _
    ByVal hKey As Long, _
    ByVal lpValueName As Long, _
    ByVal lpReserved As Long, _
    lpType As Long, _
    ByVal lpData As Long, _
    lpcbData As Long) As Long

Public Declare Function CeRegSetValueEx Lib "rapi.dll" ( _
    ByVal hKey As Long, _
    ByVal lpValueName As Long, _
    ByVal Reserved As Long, _
    ByVal dwType As Long, _
    ByVal lpData As Long, _
    ByVal cbData As Long) As Long

Public Declare Function CeRegDeleteKey Lib "rapi.dll" ( _
    ByVal hKey As Long, _
    ByVal lpSubKey As Long) As Long

Public Declare Function CeRegCloseKey Lib "rapi.dll" ( _
    ByVal hKey As Long) As Long

' Initialize RAPI
Public Function ConnectRapi() As Long
    Dim lcon As Long
    Dim lRapiInit As RAPIINIT
    
    With lRapiInit
        .cbsize = Len(lRapiInit)
        .heRapiInit = 0
        .hrRapiInit = 0
    End With
    
    lcon = CeRapiInitEx(lRapiInit)
    ConnectRapi = lcon
End Function

' Uninitialize RAPI
Public Function DisconnectRapi() As Long
    Dim lcon As Long
    lcon = CeRapiUninit
    DisconnectRapi = lcon
End Function

Public Function CreateCERegistryKeys() As Long
    Dim lret As Long
    Dim phkResult As Long
    Dim phskResult As Long
    Dim subkey As String
    Dim key As String
    Dim lpclass As String
    Dim lpdwdisposition As Long
    Dim Value As String
    Dim sData As String
    Dim lData As Long

    'Create a key named "MyKey" under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
    key = "MyKey"
    lpclass = "MyKeyClass"
    lret = CeRegCreateKeyEx(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, StrPtr(key), _
        0, StrPtr(lpclass), 0, 0, 0, phkResult, lpdwdisposition)

    If lret <> ERROR_SUCCESS Then
        MsgBox "Failure to create key.  Error: " & lret
    Else
        'Create the subkey
        subkey = "MySubKey"
        lpclass = "SubKeyClass"
        lret = CeRegCreateKeyEx(phkResult, StrPtr(subkey), _
            0, StrPtr(""), 0, 0, 0, phskResult, lpdwdisposition)
        
        If lret <> ERROR_SUCCESS Then
            MsgBox "Failure to create sub key: " & _
            subkey & "  Error: " & lret
        Else
            'Add a string value to the subkey
            Value = "Name"
            sData = "John Smith"
            lret = CeRegSetValueEx(phskResult, StrPtr(Value), 0, _
                REG_SZ, StrPtr(sData), (Len(sData) + 1) * 2)
            'Add a DWORD value to the subkey
            Value = "Age"
            lData = 23
            lret = CeRegSetValueEx(phskResult, StrPtr(Value), 0, _
            REG_DWORD, VarPtr(lData), 4)
        End If
        
    End If
    
    CreateCERegistryKeys = lret
End Function

Make sure the connection between the device and the desktop is working. You must also have a partnership established.
Run the project, and then click Command1.
Use the Remote Registry Editor that is included with Microsoft Embedded Visual Tools 3.0 (or included with the Windows CE Toolkit for Visual Basic 6.0 if the target device is running Windows CE 2.0) to view the registry on the device and verify that the registry key was created.