Creating a .NET Windows Installer – Part 1 - Introducing the Windows Installer Service
(Page 13 of 14 )
The last feature we will add to the FontView setup is an automatic registry entry. The Registry designer is modeled after the familiar regedit.exe program. You can browse to a node in the registry, and add keys or values by right-clicking and choosing the relevant option. These settings will be committed to the registry of the target computer. Note that you cannot remove existing entries, which prevents you from making potentially damaging changes.
For our registry setting, we use special variables recognized by the installer. These variables are identified by square brackets. At runtime, the setup swaps the appropriate values for the [Manufacturer] and [Product] (which are set in the Properties Window for the setup project) and the [CUSTOMERNAME] (which the user specifies in the registration window) to create the registry setting HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ProseTech\FontViewer\Customer. Setup variables are described in more detail in the second part of this series.
To incorporate this change, the FontViewer application is modified slightly. It now displays the user name of the user who installed it in the title bar.
Here's the required code in the FontViewer application:
private void main_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// (Original code omitted for space.)
RegistryKey rk;
rk = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey(
"Software\\ProseTech\\FontViewer");
if (rk != null) this.Text += " - " + rk.GetValue("Customer");
}
Next: The Sample Project >>
More C# Articles
More By Wrox Team
/ 68 
