Firstly, you need to distinguish between the key and the value. If you consider the Windows Registry Editor analogous to the File Explorer, the keys are the folders and the values are the files. the key you want is 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\TabbedBrowsing' and the value is 'ShortcutBehavior'.
Secondly, you need to provide arguments in a manner that the method you're calling expects. This is meaningless:
rKey.GetValue("ShortcutBehavior", 1, RegistryValueKind.DWord)
Thirdly, if you call a method that returns a value then you generally need to use that value, either directly or by assigning it to a variable and using that later. Where exactly do you expect the value you get to be?
Finally, you have to actually write VB code. This is meaningless:
MsgBox("The value is " & ToString(Double rkey)) ;
It appears that the value you're interested in doesn't exist by default. If you want to test whether it exists on any particular machine then you get the value and see whether it is Nothing. I'd be tempted to start by defining an enumeration to represent these values, rather than using magic numbers:
Public Enum ShortcutBehavior
NewWindow = 0
CurrentWindowNewTab = 1
CurrentTab = 2
End Enum
You don't have to do that but it will make your code self-documenting and thus easier to read and less error-prone. You can then get the value like this:
Private Const keyPath = "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\TabbedBrowsing"
Private Const valueName = "ShortcutBehavior"
Private Sub GetValue()
Using key = My.Computer.Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey(keyPath)
Dim value = key.GetValue(valueName)
If value Is Nothing Then
MessageBox.Show("The value is not set")
Else
Dim behavior = DirectCast(value, ShortcutBehavior)
MessageBox.Show($"The value is {behavior} ({CInt(behavior)})")
End If
End Using
End Sub
If you want to set the value, whether it already exists or not, you can do it like this:
Private Const keyPath = "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\TabbedBrowsing"
Private Const valueName = "ShortcutBehavior"
Private Sub SetValue()
Using key = My.Computer.Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey(keyPath, True)
key.SetValue(valueName, CInt(ShortcutBehavior.CurrentWindowNewTab), RegistryValueKind.DWord)
End Using
End Sub
If I then run this code on my own machine:
GetValue()
SetValue()
GetValue()
I see the following messages:
and:
The value is CurrentWindowNewTab (1)
If I go into the Registry Editor, manually change the value from 1 to 2 and run that code again I see the following messages:
The value is CurrentTab (2)
and:
The value is CurrentWindowNewTab (1)
Now, you originally said this:
I am trying to to Modify
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\TabbedBrowsing
value :ShortcutBehavior
from 2 to 1 .
Which will disable "Open Tab in New window" .
I am writing a KidSafeBrowser and I want to restrict opening a 'New Tab' .
That doesn't seem to match up with what I have read. According to what I have read, only a value of 0 (or no value at all) will allow a new window to be opened, while a value of 1 will allow a new tab to be opened. A value of 2 will not allow a new window or a new tab, so it seems like that is what you would want. Maybe the information I read is incorrect but you should probably double-check that. The
Enum code that I posted above is based on my understanding of what the values mean and I used
CurrentWindowNewTab because you said that you want to set the value to 1. If I'm correct though, you actually want to set the value to 2 so you should use
ShortcutBehavior.CurrentTab to set the value.
