RegRenameKey function (winreg.h)

Article
07/27/2022

Changes the name of the specified registry key.

Syntax

LSTATUS RegRenameKey(
  HKEY    hKey,
  LPCWSTR lpSubKeyName,
  LPCWSTR lpNewKeyName
);

Parameters

hKey

A handle to the key to be renamed. The handle must be opened with the KEY_WRITE access right. For more information, see Registry Key Security and Access Rights.

This handle is returned by the RegCreateKeyEx or RegOpenKeyEx function, or it can be one of the following Predefined Keys:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG
HKEY_CURRENT_USER
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
HKEY_USERS

lpSubKeyName

The name of the subkey to be renamed. This key must be a subkey of the key identified by the hKey parameter. This parameter can also be NULL, in which case the key identified by the hKey parameter will be renamed.

lpNewKeyName

The new name of the key. The new name must not already exist.

Return value

If the function succeeds, the return value is ERROR_SUCCESS.

If the function fails, the return value is a nonzero error code defined in Winerror.h. You can use the FormatMessage function with the FORMAT_MESSAGE_FROM_SYSTEM flag to get a generic description of the error. An error code of STATUS_ACCESS_DENIED indicates that the caller does not have the necessary access rights to the specified registry key or subkeys.

Remarks

This function can be used to rename an entire registry subtree. The caller must have KEY_CREATE_SUB_KEY access to the parent of the specified key and DELETE access to the entire subtree being renamed.

Requirements

Requirement	Value
Minimum supported client	Windows Vista [desktop apps only]
Minimum supported server	Windows Server 2008 [desktop apps only]
Header	winreg.h (include Windows.h)
Library	Advapi32.lib
DLL	Advapi32.dll

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