How can I convert a REG_BINARY value from the registry into a string ? (vb.net)

Question

I have a registry value which is stored as a binary value (REG_BINARY) holding information about a filepath. The value is read out into an byte array. But how can I transform it into a readable string?

I have read about system.text.encoding.ASCII.GetString(value) but this does not work. As far as I got to know the registry value is arbitrary binary data and not ASCII which is the reason for the method to produce useless data.

Does anybody know how I can convert the data?

Sample: (A piece of the entry)

01 00 00 00 94 00 00 00 14 00 00 00 63 00 3A 00 5C 00 
70 00 72 00 6F 00 67 00 72 00 61 00 6D 00 6d 00 65 00 
5C 00 67 00 65 00 6D 00 65 00 69 00 6E 00 73 00 61 00 
6D 00 65 00 20 00 64 00 61 00 74 00 65 00 69 00 65 00 
6E 00 5C

Due to the regedit this is supposed to be:

............c.:.\.p.r.o.g.r.a.m.m.e.\.g.e.m.e.i.n.s.a.m.e. .d.a.t.e.i.e.n.\

The entry itself was created from Outlook. It's an entry for an disabled addin item (resiliency)

Solution 1

Well, it's not arbitrary binary data - it's text data in some kind of encoding. You need to find out what the encoding is.

I wouldn't be surprised if Encoding.Unicode.GetString(value) worked - but if that doesn't, please post a sample (in hex) and I'll see what I can do. What does the documentation of whatever's put the data in there say?

EDIT: It looks like Encoding.Unicode is your friend, but starting from byte 12. Use

Encoding.Unicode.GetString(bytes, 12, bytes.Length-12)

Solution 2

I had this problem too and i solved in this way:

I had declared a variable as:

Dim encoding As System.Text.Encoding = System.Text.Encoding.Unicode

Then I do this in a loop:

    For Each Val As String In ValueName
        data = k.GetValue(Val)
        ListRecent.Items.Add(Val & ": " & encoding.GetString(data))
    Next

So in listbox called "ListRecent" I have obtained the complete list of recent