C# in a Nutshell, Second Edition

Chapter 25. The Microsoft.Win32 Namespace

The Microsoft.Win32 namespace includes types you can use to interact with the Microsoft Windows platform. These types concentrate on two aspects of Windows-specific programming: receiving operating system events and manipulating the registry. Essentially, the classes, delegates, and enumerations in this namespace provide a type-safe object wrapper around a few select functions in the Windows API.

Use the Registry class to access the root-level registry keys, which are provided as RegistryKey objects. These have built-in methods for retrieving and modifying key values. The SystemEvents class allows you to respond to system events such as timers, preference changes, and shutdown operations. All other types in this namespace are used to support the SystemEvents class, by providing delegates for each event and custom System.EventArgs objects that provide additional information to the corresponding event handlers.