RegCreateKeyA function (winreg.h)

Creates the specified registry key. If the key already exists in the registry, the function opens it.

Syntax

LSTATUS RegCreateKeyA(
  [in]           HKEY   hKey,
  [in, optional] LPCSTR lpSubKey,
  [out]          PHKEY  phkResult
);

Parameters

[in] hKey

A handle to an open registry key. The calling process must have KEY_CREATE_SUB_KEY access to the key. For more information, see Registry Key Security and Access Rights.

Access for key creation is checked against the security descriptor of the registry key, not the access mask specified when the handle was obtained. Therefore, even if hKey was opened with a samDesired of KEY_READ, it can be used in operations that create keys if allowed by its security descriptor.

This handle is returned by the RegCreateKeyEx or RegOpenKeyEx function, or it can be one of the following predefined keys:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT

HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG

HKEY_CURRENT_USER

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

HKEY_USERS

[in, optional] lpSubKey

The name of a key that this function opens or creates. This key must be a subkey of the key identified by the hKey parameter.

For more information on key names, see Structure of the Registry.

If hKey is one of the predefined keys, lpSubKey may be NULL. In that case, phkResult receives the same hKey handle passed in to the function.

[out] phkResult

A pointer to a variable that receives a handle to the opened or created key. If the key is not one of the predefined registry keys, call the RegCloseKey function after you have finished using the handle.

Return value

If the function succeeds, the return value is ERROR_SUCCESS.

If the function fails, the return value is a nonzero error code defined in Winerror.h. You can use the FormatMessage function with the FORMAT_MESSAGE_FROM_SYSTEM flag to get a generic description of the error.

Remarks

An application cannot create a key that is a direct child of HKEY_USERS or HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. An application can create subkeys in lower levels of the HKEY_USERS or HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE trees.

If your service or application impersonates different users, do not use this function with HKEY_CURRENT_USER. Instead, call the RegOpenCurrentUser function.

The RegCreateKey function creates all missing keys in the specified path. An application can take advantage of this behavior to create several keys at once. For example, an application can create a subkey four levels deep at the same time as the three preceding subkeys by specifying a string of the following form for the lpSubKey parameter:

subkey1\subkey2\subkey3\subkey4

Note that this behavior will result in creation of unwanted keys if an existing key in the path is spelled incorrectly.

Requirements

See also

RegCloseKey

RegCreateKeyEx

RegDeleteKey

RegOpenKeyEx

Registry Functions

Registry Overview