Read/write to Windows registry using Java

Question

How is it possible to read/write to the Windows registry using Java?

Answer 1

Java Native Access (JNA) is an excellent project for working with native libraries and has support for the Windows registry in the platform library (platform.jar) through Advapi32Util and Advapi32.

Update: Here's a snippet with some examples of how easy it is to use JNA to work with the Windows registry using JNA 3.4.1,

import com.sun.jna.platform.win32.Advapi32Util;
import com.sun.jna.platform.win32.WinReg;

public class WindowsRegistrySnippet {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        // Read a string
        String productName = Advapi32Util.registryGetStringValue(
            WinReg.HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, "SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion", "ProductName");
        System.out.printf("Product Name: %s\n", productName);

        // Read an int (& 0xFFFFFFFFL for large unsigned int)
        int timeout = Advapi32Util.registryGetIntValue(
            WinReg.HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, "SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion\\Windows", "ShutdownWarningDialogTimeout");
        System.out.printf("Shutdown Warning Dialog Timeout: %d (%d as unsigned long)\n", timeout, timeout & 0xFFFFFFFFL);

        // Create a key and write a string
        Advapi32Util.registryCreateKey(WinReg.HKEY_CURRENT_USER, "SOFTWARE\\StackOverflow");
        Advapi32Util.registrySetStringValue(WinReg.HKEY_CURRENT_USER, "SOFTWARE\\StackOverflow", "url", "http://stackoverflow.com/a/6287763/277307");

        // Delete a key
        Advapi32Util.registryDeleteKey(WinReg.HKEY_CURRENT_USER, "SOFTWARE\\StackOverflow");
    }
}