Not getting internet settings windows registry value while running as a service

Question

Hi,

We have one utility application which we need to get the "ProxyOverride" value from HKEY_CURRENT_USER internet settings. When I run the code from desktop application. I am able to get the value from the following windows registry.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings

But, When I run the application as a service then application is looking into the below windows registry
HKEY_USERS.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings

Find the below code snippet for your reference.
const string Subkey = @"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\";
string bypassProxyValue = string.Empty;
using (RegistryKey regKey = RegistryKey.OpenBaseKey(RegistryHive.CurrentUser, RegistryView.Default).OpenSubKey(Subkey))
{
string[] keys = regKey.GetValueNames();
bypassProxyValue = regKey.GetValue("ProxyOverride").ToString();
}

Above code is perfectly working when we run from desktop and the same code is not working when we run as a service. Appreciate your quick help.

Thanks

Answer 1

Registry access from a windows service should not use HKCU. Refer to the discussion of HKCU at predefined-keys. Note that it says "This handle should not be used in a service or an application that impersonates different users. Instead, call the RegOpenCurrentUser function.
For more information, see HKEY_CURRENT_USER."

My understanding here is that your service would need to impersonate the user for which the information is desired and then call the RegOpenCurrentUser function so that the thread's token will be used thus avoiding the return of default values.