I Can't Read registry values from a service

Question

Within my service i have the following function in order to take some values from my registry:

 Public Function GetKeyValue(ByVal nKey As String, ByVal sPath As String) As String
        Dim RegKey As RegistryKey
        Dim kValue As String = Nothing
        Dim Pos As String
        If CheckRegistry(sPath) Then
            Try
                RegKey = Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey(sPath)
                kValue = CStr(RegKey.GetValue(nKey))

            Catch ex As Exception
                StartLogFile(" GetKeyValue " & vbNewLine & "Stack Trace= " & ex.StackTrace, EventLogEntryType.Warning)
            End Try
        End If
        Return kValue
    End Function

the same function works fine within a Windows form, but if i call from a service then she can't read the value. Is there anybody how knows what is going on?

Answer 1

You should not store your data in HKEY_CURRENT_USER but under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE that makes more sense for a Windows-Service.

Be also aware that you can also set Permissions on Registry Keys. Check also that when try reading.

Answer 2

You are almost surely reading registry settings of a different user. The service likely runs as one of the built-in service user accounts: SYSTEM, LOCALSERVICE or NETWORKSERVICE. These are not interactive users.

Your design is fundamentally flawed and I suspect you will need to move these settings into a file which is not part of a user profile.