You can use the Registry editor in Microsoft® Visual Studio® Installer to modify the target machine registry as necessary for your application installation. After your installation package (.msi) file installs your components and files on the target machine, it can write the associated registry keys and values to the system registry. You establish the keys and values your .msi file writes to the system registry by setting them up in the Registry editor.
This topic explains how to:
For information about adding, deleting, and setting registry values, see Adding and Deleting Registry Values and Setting Registry Values.
The Registry editor is displayed.
Note You can expand the HKEY_CURRENT_USER and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE nodes in the Registry editor and any other subtrees, keys, or subkeys with child keys or subkeys.
A new registry key is added to your installer project and shown in the Registry on Target Machine hierarchy with the label New Key #1 (or New Key #2, 3, 4, and so on) in the location you had selected. You can change the default name, if desired.
Important You can only delete empty registry keys. If the registry key you want to delete contains any keys, subkeys, or values, you must delete them before you can delete the parent key. Follow this procedure to delete any registry keys or subkeys; for information about deleting registry values, see Adding and Deleting Registry Values.
Note You can only delete empty registry keys; you cannot delete a registry key that contains any subkeys or values.
The selected registry key is deleted from your installer project and is no longer shown in the Registry on Target Machine hierarchy. The information will not be written to the target machine registry when your application is installed.