regedit

Read, Write, List and do all sorts of funky stuff to the windows registry using node.js and windows script host.

No pesky native code :-)

Install

npm install regedit

Example

const regedit = require('regedit').promisified

async function main() {
  const listResult = await regedit.list('HKCU\\SOFTWARE')
  console.log(listResult)

  await regedit.createKey(['HKLM\\SOFTWARE\\MyApp2', 'HKCU\\SOFTWARE\\MyApp'])
  await regedit.putValue({
    'HKCU\\SOFTWARE\\MyApp': {
        Company: {
            value: 'Moo corp',
            type: 'REG_SZ'
        }
    },
    'HKLM\\SOFTWARE\\MyApp2': { 
      test: {
        value: '123',
        type: 'REG_SZ'
      } 
    }
  })
}

main()

Friendly warning regarding 32bit and 64bit OS / Process

When launching a 32bit application in 64bit environment, some of your paths will be relative to wow6432node. Things might get a little unexpected if you try to find something you thought was in HKLM\Software when in fact it is located at HKLM\Software\wow6432node. To overcome this the arch methods were added.

Further reading here

A note about Electron

This software uses Windows Script Host to read and write to the registry. For that purpose, it will execute .wsf files. When packaging the app's dependencies with ASAR, node-regedit will not be able to access the windows script files, because they are bundled in a single ASAR file. Therefore it is necessary to store the .wsf files elsewhere, outside of the packaged asar file. You can set your custom location for the files with setExternalVBSLocation(location):

callbacks and promise based APIs

regedit was originally written using callbacks, but a promise based API was added later:

// callback api
const regedit = require('regedit')
// promise api
const promisifiedRegedit = require('regedit').promisified

// Assuming the files lie in <app>/resources/my-location
const vbsDirectory = path.join(path.dirname(electron.remote.app.getPath('exe')), './resources/my-location');
regedit.setExternalVBSLocation(vbsDirectory);

Also, take a look at #60

API

Every command executes a sub process that runs vbscript code. To boost efficiency, every command supports batching.

Reading keys and values

regedit.list([String|Array], [Function])

Lists the direct content of one or more sub keys. Specify an array instead of a string to query multiple keys in the same run.

Given the command:

regedit.list(['HKCU\\SOFTWARE', 'HKLM\\SOFTWARE', 'HKCU\\IM_FAKE_THEREFOR_I_DONT_EXIST'], function(err, result) {
    ...
})

Result will be an object with the following structure:

{
    'HKCU\\SOFTWARE': {
        exists: true,
        keys: [ 'Google', 'Microsoft', ... more direct sub keys ]
        values: {
            'valueName': {
                value: '123',
                type: 'REG_SZ'
            }
            ... more direct child values of HKCU\\SOFTWARE
        }
    },
    'HKLM\\SOFTWARE': {
        exists: true,
        keys: [ 'Google', 'Microsoft', ... more direct sub keys ]
        values: {
            'valueName': {
                value: '123',
                type: 'REG_SZ'
            }
            ... more direct child values of HKLM\\SOFTWARE
        }
    },
    'HKCU\\IM_FAKE_THEREFOR_I_DONT_EXIST': {
        exists: false,
        keys: [],
        values: {}
    }
}

Note about listing default values

In the windows registry a key may have a default value. When enumarting value names, the default value's name will be empty. This presents a minor problem when including the empty value in a set with other values since it cannot be safely named with anything but the empty string, for fear of collision with other values.

Thus, accessing the default value becomes slightly awkward:

regedit.list('path\\to\\default\\value', function (err, result) {
    var defaultValue = result['path\\to\\default\\value'].values[''].value
})

For now this is how its going to be, but in the future this will probably change, possibly in a way that will effect the whole interface.

list with callback api will be deperecated and eventually removed in future versions, take a look at the streaming interface below

regedit.list([String|Array]) - streaming interface

Same as regedit.list([String|Array], [Function]) exposes a streaming interface instead of a callback. This is useful for situations where you have a lot of data coming in and out of the list process. Using the streaming interface is also important when trying to fetch a large amount of keys from the registry, as it overcomes the limitation of passing data as a command line argument.

This operation will mutate the keys array

Example:

regedit.list(['HKCU\\SOFTWARE', 'HKLM\\SOFTWARE'])
.on('data', function(entry) {
    console.log(entry.key)
    console.log(entry.data)
})
.on('finish', function () {
    console.log('list operation finished')
})

This code output will look like this:

HKCU\\SOFTWARE
{
    keys: [ 'Google', 'Microsoft', ... more direct sub keys ]
    values: {
        'valueName': {
            value: '123',
            type: 'REG_SZ'
        }
        ... more direct child values of HKCU\\SOFTWARE
    }
}
HKLM\\SOFTWARE
{
    keys: [ 'Google', 'Microsoft', ... more direct sub keys ]
    values: {
        'valueName': {
            value: '123',
            type: 'REG_SZ'
        }
        ... more direct child values of HKLM\\SOFTWARE    
    }
}

regedit.arch.list32([String|Array], [Function])

same as regedit.list([String|Array], [Function]), only force a 32bit architecture on the registry

regedit.arch.list32([String|Array])

streaming interface, see regedit.list([String|Array])

regedit.arch.list64([String|Array], [Function])

same as list, only force a 64bit architecture on the registry

regedit.arch.list64([String|Array])

streaming interface, see regedit.list([String|Array])

regedit.arch.list([String|Array], [Function])

same as list, only force your system architecture on the registry (select automatically between list64 and list32)

regedit.arch.list([String|Array])

streaming interface, see regedit.list([String|Array])

regedit.listUnexpandedValues([String|Array], [function])

Lists the values of one or more value keys (or paths as I like to call them) without expanding any embedded environment variables. Specify an array instead of a string to query multiple keys in the same run.

Read issue #40 on why and when this is needed.

Unlike the rest of this project, which is based on StdRegServ, this API (added on May 2022) uses a wshell object RegRead method. Although it's properly tested, please report any issues asap.

const regedit = require('./index').promisified

async function main() {
  const res = await regedit.listUnexpandedValues('HKCU\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer\\User Shell Folders\\AppData')

  console.log(JSON.stringify(res, null, '\t'))
}

main()

Result will look like this:

[
  {
    "path": "HKCU\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer\\User Shell Folders\\AppData",
    "exists": true,
    "value": "%USERPROFILE%\\AppData\\Roaming"
  }
]

This API also support a streaming interface much like list does.

Manipulating the registry

regedit.createKey([String|Array], [Function])

Creates one or more keys in the registry This operation will mutate the keys array

regedit.deleteKey([String|Array], [Function])

Deletes one or more keys in the registry This operation will mutate the keys array

regedit.putValue(Object, Function)

Put one or more values in the registry. The Object given to this function is almost identical to the result of regedit.list().

Here is an example:

var valuesToPut = {
    'HKCU\\Software\\MySoftware': {
        'myValue1': {
            value: [1,2,3],
            type: 'REG_BINARY'
        },
        'myValue2': {
            value: 'aString',
            type: 'REG_SZ'
        }
    },
    'HKCU\\Software\\MySoftware\\foo': {
        'myValue3': {
            value: ['a', 'b', 'c']
            type: 'REG_MULTI_SZ'
        }
    }
}

regedit.putValue(valuesToPut, function(err) {

})

Supported value types are:

• REG_SZ, REG_EXPAND_SZ: a string basically
• REG_DWORD, REG_QWORD: should use javascript numbers
• REG_MULTI_SZ: an array of strings
• REG_BINARY: an array of numbers (representing bytes)
• REG_DEFAULT: see note about default values below

Note about setting default values

When including a default value in a putValue operation, one must use the REG_DEFAULT type. Further more, the name of the value is insignificant since in the registry the default value has no name, but because of the way the node and the vb processes communicate a name must be used. Please note that the only legal value type of a default value is REG_SZ

this is a temporary solution and is subject to change in future versions

var values = {
    'HKCU\\Software\\MySoftware': {
        'someNameIDontCareAbout': {
            value: 'Must be a string',
            type: 'REG_DEFAULT'
        },
        'myValue2': {
            value: 'aString',
            type: 'REG_SZ'
        }
    }
}
regedit.putValue(values, function (err) {    
})

For now this is how its going to be, but in the future this will probably change, possibly in a way that will effect the whole interface.

regedit.deleteValue([String|Array], [Function])

Deletes one or more values in the registry This operation will mutate the keys array

Promises

To use promises access the function you want through regedit.promisified, all function signatures are the same ([String|Array], [Arch (optional)])

Default arch is agnostic.

Example: regedit.promisified.list([String|Array], [Arch (optional)])

try {
    const registryList = await regedit.promisified.list(['HKCU\\SOFTWARE', 'HKLM\\SOFTWARE', 'HKCU\\IM_FAKE_THEREFOR_I_DONT_EXIST'])
} catch (e) {
    console.log('Error while listing keys:', e.message)
}

Result and errors should be the same as not promisified.

Develop

Run tests

    mocha -R spec

Enable debug output

    set DEBUG=regedit

TODO

None :)