Read Registry_binary and convert to string

Question

I have been searching for the last 2 hours, and I actualy just have been searching stupid.

I am trying to read a Registry_binary Value and convert this to a string. I tried several things I've found online(includeing some stackoverflow posts), but seems I cannot get it work:

class Class1 {
    RegistryKey RegKey;
    String keys;

    static void Main() {
        Class1 c=new Class1();
        c.initialize();
    }

    void initialize() {
        RegKey=Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey("the location", true);
        var bytearray=Converter<RegKey.GetValue("key"), String[keys]>;
        Console.WriteLine(bytearray);
        System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(5000);
    }
}

I also tried to use:

keys=keys+BitConverter.ToString(System.byte[RegKey.GetValue("key")]);

On request:

RegKey=Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey("Software\\MXstudios\\riseingtesharts", true);
keys=RegKey.GetValue("key");

and this will output System.Bytes[]

How do you want to convert it to a string? What kind of string do you want to get? — SLaks, Feb 03 '13 at 00:22
@SLaks i wish to convert the registry_binary ( which got a hex value inside) to a normal text string, if possible in the hex format — MX D, Feb 03 '13 at 00:23
Can you give us an example of registry_binary and the expected resulting string? — deej, Feb 03 '13 at 00:29
@deej Added it under the tag On request . i would like to have the output as it is in the registry which in this case would be : 84-F6-61-B0-06-E5-55-FF-36 — MX D, Feb 03 '13 at 00:34

deej · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-03T01:16:05.243

Assuming the key is opened

var valueName = "some binary registry value";
var valueKind = registryKey.GetValueKind(valueName);
if (valueKind == RegistryValueKind.Binary)
{
    var value = (byte[])registryKey.GetValue(valueName);
    var valueAsString = BitConverter.ToString(value);
}

EDIT: some explanations:

GetValue returns object, and BitConverter.ToString gets an array of bytes as an argument. Thus we cast the value returned by GetValue to byte[], to be able to use it within BitConverter.ToString. But first we check if the registry value is actually binary. Then you can cast it to byte[] safely, because the object returned by GetValue for binary values is actually byte array.

Read Registry_binary and convert to string

1 Answers1

Linked