Creating a new Key and Assigning a new value to it.
We will be creating a new key with a user-defined value under the HKEY_CURRENT_USER as that holds information about the current user only, not many confidential system files or information, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE holds the information related to the system and it is better not to tamper with them or create anything new which can affect the system.
winreg module is a built-in module that installs along with Python. so, we have to just import it.
Python3
# importing required module import winreg as wrg # Store location of HKEY_CURRENT_USER location = wrg.HKEY_CURRENT_USER # Store path in soft soft = wrg.OpenKeyEx(location, r"SOFTWARE\\") key_1 = wrg.CreateKey(soft, "Geeks") # Creating values in Geeks wrg.SetValueEx(key_1, "value One", 0, wrg.REG_SZ, "w3wiki is Best") wrg.SetValueEx(key_1, "value Two", 0, wrg.REG_SZ, "Participate in Technical Scripter") if key_1: wrg.CloseKey(key_1) |
Explanation of the Above Code:
- Firstly importing the module winreg with the alias wrg, users can use anything if they want or can use winreg also every time.
- Then defining the location where we would be creating the key and assign value.
- Then in âsoftâ variable passing the location and the name of the subfolder inside OpenKeyEx() method of winreg, which is used to open already made keys, it takes two arguments, first one the main folder name and then the subfolder mentioned as âkeyâ here.
- Then we are creating a new key whose name is Geeks inside the Software key.
- Then last two lines are providing some values and name, the REG_SZ is mentioned as we want to use a fixed-length string here, to keep it as simple as possible.
- After creating and assigning values it is time to close the key otherwise it will remain open and other operations canât be done. Itâs like file handling.
Output:
If we open the regedit again then we will see the following output.
Note: To see the changes of anything like the creation, or deletion of keys user need to open the registry editor every time or refresh it.
Manipulating Windows Registry using winreg in Python
In this article, we will learn how to manipulate Windows Registry using winreg in Python.
What is windows registry?
It is a hierarchical database that holds low-level settings for the windows operating system and for applications in which the use of a registry is required. The device drivers, kernel, services, user interfaces, and security accounts manager can all use the registry.
IMPORTANT: As Windows Registry is a very sensitive place to do anything, do not change any value predefined by the Windows System. This article will just be for learning purposes of how Python can be used to create some new registry keys with user-defined values.
Windows registry can be used for different purposes, it can be accessed via typing regedit in the Run application.
Window opens after running âregeditâ in run: