How to edit the registry keys of a specific user programatically?

Question

I want to change a few settings of a Windows user that I created in my application. If I understand correctly, his "HKEY_CURRENT_USER" values will be under HKEY_USERS/<sid>/.... Is this correct? How can I get the sid of the user, if I know the user name and the domain?

Edit: How can I correctly edit the HKCU keys of that user, if I have the sid already?

possible duplicate of [Convert a username to a SID string in C#/.NET](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1040623/convert-a-username-to-a-sid-string-in-c-net) — Daniel A. White, Apr 02 '12 at 14:25

deutschZuid · Accepted Answer · 2012-04-03T01:47:38.430

3

I have a program that does exactly that. Here is the relevant part of the code:

NTAccount ntuser = new NTAccount(strUser);
SecurityIdentifier sID = (SecurityIdentifier) ntuser.Translate(typeof(SecurityIdentifier));
strSID = sID.ToString();

You will need to import two namespaces:

using System.DirectoryServices;
using System.Security.Principal;

Hope this helps.

Then use Registry.Users.SetValue with SID string\path to set the registry value.

This might not work as intended if you are editing a logged-off profile, especially a roaming profile.

edited Apr 03 '12 at 01:47

answered Apr 03 '12 at 01:40

deutschZuid

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Actually upon closer inspection, you might not even need System.DirectoryServices; – deutschZuid Apr 03 '12 at 01:44

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 02 '12 at 16:22

2

There are two steps to this. First you must get the users sid. Second you must load the users registry hive. Other users hives are not loaded by default so you must load it explicitly.

The answer in Daniel White's comment is the best way to get the sid.

To load the user's registry hive, use the LoadUserProfile windows API via pinvoke. There is a complementary UnloadUserProfile to unload the hive when you are done with it.

answered Apr 02 '12 at 16:22

Mike Zboray

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Isn't HKEY_CURRENT_USER the same as HKEY_USERS\? – Tamás Szelei Apr 02 '12 at 16:24
@TamásSzelei yes. Do you want to edit the currently logged in user's settings or another user? – Mike Zboray Apr 02 '12 at 16:32
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Accessing the profile of a logged-off user [can result in data loss](http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2005/06/30/434209.aspx). Make sure you load the profile to avoid this problem. – Raymond Chen Apr 02 '12 at 17:54

Raj Ranjhan · Answer 3 · 2012-04-02T16:48:33.917

0

You can use Query by example and search using PrincipalSearcher for appropriate UserPrincipal

// Since you know the domain and user
PrincipalContext context = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain);

// Create the principal user object from the context
UserPrincipal usr = new UserPrincipal(context);
usr .GivenName = "Jim";
usr .Surname = "Daly";

// Create a PrincipalSearcher object.
PrincipalSearcher ps = new PrincipalSearcher(usr);
PrincipalSearchResult<Principal> results = ps.FindAll();
foreach (UserPrincipal user in results) {
    if(user.DisplayName == userName) {
        var usersSid = user.Sid.ToString();
    }
}

edited Apr 02 '12 at 16:48

answered Apr 02 '12 at 16:04

Raj Ranjhan

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So when I have the SID, is it `Registry.Users.SetValue(sid + @"\whatever key", somevalue);`? Is that sid in the right format? – Tamás Szelei Apr 02 '12 at 16:09
@TamásSzelei You will need to convert sid to `String`and then yes. – Raj Ranjhan Apr 02 '12 at 16:49

How to edit the registry keys of a specific user programatically?

3 Answers3