How to read value of a registry key c#

Question

At start up of my application I am trying to see if the user has a specific version of a software installed, specifically the MySQL connector, all using c#. In the registry, the MySQL contains a version entry. So what I am trying to accomplish is this.

My app starts up. Somewhere in the start up code I need to do the following things in order. Check to see if the user has the MySQL connector installed, which is located at...

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\MySQL AB\MySQL Connector/Net

If the user has the connector installed, I wanted to check what version they have, which is stored as Name = "Version" and Data = x.x.x (Picture below)

Now if the user has a specific version installed, then I will execute other code, which is where I can take from.

What would be the best way of going about this?

EDIT: Below is the code I currently have and I am getting an error on line 19 (It is commented). My error says "error CS1001: Identifier Expected" I wasnt able to figure out what that means. Any help?

using System; using Microsoft.Win32; using System.Data;  public class regTest {     public static void Main()     {         try         {             RegistryKey key = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey("Software\\Wow6432Node\\MySQL AB\\MySQL Connector\\Net");             if (key != null)             {                 Object o = key.GetValue("Version");                 if (o != null)                 {                     Version version = new Version(o as String);  //"as" because it's REG_SZ...otherwise ToString() might be safe(r)                     Version broken = new Version("6.7.4");                     if (version.Equals.(broken)) //This is where the error is occuring                     {                         DataSet dataSet = ConfigurationManager.GetSection("system.data") as ystem.Data.DataSet;                          DataView vi = dataSet.Tables[0].DefaultView;                         vi.Sort = "Name";                         if (vi.Find("MySql") == -1)                         {                             dataSet.Tables[0].Rows.Add("MySql"                                 , "MySql.Data.MySqlClient"                                 , "MySql.Data.MySqlClient"                                 ,                                 typeof(MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlClientFactory).AssemblyQualifiedName);                         }                      }                  }             }         }          catch (Exception ex)  //just for demonstration...it's always best to handle specific exceptions         {              //react appropriately         }     } } 

Answer 1

You need to first add using Microsoft.Win32; to your code page.

Then you can begin to use the Registry classes:

try {     using (RegistryKey key = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey("Software\\Wow6432Node\\MySQL AB\\MySQL Connector\\Net"))     {         if (key != null)         {             Object o = key.GetValue("Version");             if (o != null)             {                 Version version = new Version(o as String);  //"as" because it's REG_SZ...otherwise ToString() might be safe(r)                 //do what you like with version             }         }     } } catch (Exception ex)  //just for demonstration...it's always best to handle specific exceptions {     //react appropriately } 

BEWARE: unless you have administrator access, you are unlikely to be able to do much in LOCAL_MACHINE. Sometimes even reading values can be a suspect operation without admin rights.