Greetings fellow monks,

I'm not sure if my problem is with my misunderstanding of how the registry works, or my somehow failing to use the Win32::TieRegistry module correctly.  My intent is to delete the key 'HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/Folder/shell/xyzzy_1' from the Windows XP registry on my laptop computer.

First of all, here's my code: 

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
#
#  Attempt to delete 'HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/Folder/shell/xyzzy_1' from the
#  Windows Registry, using Win32::TieRegistry.
##


#############
# Libraries #
#############
use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dumper;
use Win32::TieRegistry( Delimiter => '/' );


################
# Main Program #
################

# Step 1 -- assign variables
my $label   = "xyzzy_1";
my $key     = 'HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/Folder/shell';
my $h_shell = $Registry->{$key};
(defined $h_shell) or die "Unable to find registry key '$key'\n";

# Step 2 -- Display all keys for HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/Folder/shell
print "[Values for '$key']\n";
my $idx = 0;
foreach my $key (keys %$h_shell) {
    printf "  %3d.  %s\n", ++$idx, $key;
}
print "\n\n";

# Step 3 -- Validate that the label 'xyzzy_1' was found
if (!exists($h_shell->{$label})) {
    die "No such label for '$key' => '$label'\n";
}

# Step 4 -- Delete 'xyzzy_1' from 'HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/Folder/shell'
print "Deleting label '$label' ...\n";
my $result = delete($h_shell->{$label});
print "Result of delete:  '$result'\n";

[download]

Prior to running the program, I created a registry key "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/Folder/shell/xyzzy_1", which along with the existing keys for the parent key look like this according to regedit (note my use of '###' for the folder icon): 

    [+]-### FName.Factoid
    [+]-### FName.Factoid.2
    [+]-### fndfile
    {+]-### Folder
     |   |--### DefaultIcon
     |  [-]-### shell
     |   |  [+]--### explore
     |   |  [+]--### open
     |   |   |---### xyzzy_1
     |  [+]-### shellex
    [+]-### fonfile
    [+]-### FormHost.FormHost

[download]

When I run the program, the output I get is: 

D:\Tools\rmfolder>regtest.pl
[Values for 'HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/Folder/shell']
    1.  explore/
    2.  open/
    3.  xyzzy_1/


Deleting label 'xyzzy_1' ...
Result of delete:  'The system cannot find the file specified.
'

[download]

Can anyone suggest why the delete isn't apparently working (both from the error message, and the fact that it still shows up in the registry)?  Am I missing some other step or steps?  I'm using Win32::TieRegistry version 0.20 (which comes with my ActiveState Perl version 5.10.0); should I be updating to a later version of Win32::TieRegistry?

Thanks in advance for any help!

s''(q.S:$/9=(T1';s;(..)(..);$..=substr+crypt($1,$2),2,3;eg;print$..$/

In reply to Unable to delete registry keys using Win32::TieRegistry by liverpole

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