How to: Delete a Registry Key in Visual Basic

The DeleteSubKey(String) and DeleteSubKey(String, Boolean) methods can be used to delete registry keys.

Procedure

To delete a registry key

• Use the DeleteSubKey method to delete a registry key. This example deletes the key Software/TestApp in the CurrentUser hive. You can change this in the code to the appropriate string, or have it rely on user-supplied information.

  My.Computer.Registry.CurrentUser.DeleteSubKey(
      "Software\TestApp")
  

Robust Programming

The DeleteSubKey method returns an empty string if the key/value pair does not exist.

The following conditions may cause an exception:

• The name of the key is Nothing (ArgumentNullException).

• The user does not have permissions to delete registry keys (SecurityException).

• The key name exceeds the 255-character limit (ArgumentException).

• The registry key is read-only (UnauthorizedAccessException).

.NET Framework Security

Registry calls fail if either sufficient run-time permissions are not granted (RegistryPermission) or if the user does not have the correct access (as determined by the ACLs) for creating or writing to settings. For example, a local application that has the code access security permission might not have operating system permission.

See also

• DeleteSubKey
• RegistryKey
• Security and the Registry
• Reading from and Writing to the Registry