Using WriteProfileString to Delete WIN.INI Entries

 Last reviewed: July 22, 1997
Article ID: Q65111
3.00 3.10 WINDOWS kbprg

The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) for Windows versions 3.1 and 3.0

SUMMARY

The WriteProfileString function provides a mechanism to maintain the system profile file WIN.INI. In versions of Windows prior to version 3.0, an application could call the WriteProfileString function to add entries to WIN.INI or to modify existing entries. However, to delete an entry from WIN.INI, the user was required to edit the file manually.

The WriteProfileString function was extended in Windows 3.0 to enable an application to delete any of the following from WIN.INI:

  1. A value associated with a key name.
2. A line that contains a particular key name. 3. An entire section.

This article details the three deletion scenarios listed above.

MORE INFORMATION

The parameters passed to the WriteProfileString function refer to the following selection from an example WIN.INI file: 

   [MY_APP]
   KeyName = DATA
To delete the line KeyName = DATA, call the WriteProfileString function as follows: 

   WriteProfileString("MY_APP", "KeyName", NULL);
To delete the value DATA, change the call to the following: 

   WriteProfileString("MY_APP", "KeyName", "");
To delete the entire MY_APP section, make the following call: 

   WriteProfileString("MY_APP", NULL, NULL);

Additional reference words: 3.00 3.10
KBCategory: kbprg
KBSubcategory: UsrIni
Keywords : kb16bitonly

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Last reviewed: July 22, 1997
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