RegRestoreKeyW function (winreg.h)
Reads the registry information in a specified file and copies it over the specified key. This registry information may be in the form of a key and multiple levels of subkeys.
Applications that back up or restore system state including system files and registry hives should use the Volume Shadow Copy Service instead of the registry functions.
Syntax
LSTATUS RegRestoreKeyW(
[in] HKEY hKey,
[in] LPCWSTR lpFile,
[in] DWORD dwFlags
);
Parameters
[in] hKey
A handle to an open registry key. This handle is returned by the RegCreateKeyEx or RegOpenKeyEx function. It can also be one of the following predefined keys:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG HKEY_CURRENT_USER HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE HKEY_USERS Any information contained in this key and its descendent keys is overwritten by the information in the file pointed to by the lpFile parameter.
[in] lpFile
The name of the file with the registry information. This file is typically created by using the RegSaveKey function.
[in] dwFlags
The flags that indicate how the key or keys are to be restored. This parameter can be one of the following values.
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
There are two different registry hive file formats. Registry hives created on current operating systems typically cannot be loaded by earlier ones.
If any subkeys of the hKey parameter are open, RegRestoreKey fails.
The calling process must have the SE_RESTORE_NAME and SE_BACKUP_NAME privileges on the computer in which the registry resides. For more information, see Running with Special Privileges.
This function replaces the keys and values below the specified key with the keys and values that are subsidiary to the top-level key in the file, no matter what the name of the top-level key in the file might be. For example, hKey might identify a key A with subkeys B and C, while the lpFile parameter specifies a file containing key X with subkeys Y and Z. After a call to RegRestoreKey, the registry would contain key A with subkeys Y and Z. The value entries of A would be replaced by the value entries of X.
The new information in the file specified by lpFile overwrites the contents of the key specified by the hKey parameter, except for the key name.
If hKey represents a key in a remote computer, the path described by lpFile is relative to the remote computer.
Note
The winreg.h header defines RegRestoreKey as an alias that automatically selects the ANSI or Unicode version of this function based on the definition of the UNICODE preprocessor constant. Mixing usage of the encoding-neutral alias with code that is not encoding-neutral can lead to mismatches that result in compilation or runtime errors. For more information, see Conventions for Function Prototypes.
Requirements
| Requirement | Value |
|---|---|
| Minimum supported client | Windows 2000 Professional [desktop apps only] |
| Minimum supported server | Windows 2000 Server [desktop apps only] |
| Target Platform | Windows |
| Header | winreg.h (include Windows.h) |
| Library | Advapi32.lib |
| DLL | Advapi32.dll |