FIX: VB Registry Functions Are Limited with Nested Settings (149038)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Visual Basic Standard Edition, 32-bit, for Windows 4.0
  • Microsoft Visual Basic Professional Edition, 16-bit, for Windows 4.0
  • Microsoft Visual Basic Professional Edition, 32-bit, for Windows 4.0
  • Microsoft Visual Basic Enterprise Edition, 16-bit, for Windows 4.0
  • Microsoft Visual Basic Enterprise Edition, 32-bit, for Windows 4.0
This article was previously published under Q149038

SYMPTOMS

Error 5 - Invalid Procedure Call appears when the DeleteSetting is attempted.

CAUSE

The SaveSetting statement and GetSetting function in Visual Basic 4.0 for Windows are used to create and retrieve information from nested levels in the Registry. However, the related DeleteSetting statement does not handle these nested settings. The GetAllSettings function also has this limitation.

RESOLUTION

Use more than one DeleteSetting statement to remove sections of the nested keys before removing the top level key, rather than attempting to remove the top key in isolation.

For example, in the following, do not use: 
   DeleteSetting "Test1"

Instead, use the following two lines of code to remove the Test1 key and its subkeys: 
   DeleteSetting "Test1\Test2"
   DeleteSetting "Test1"

To enable all possible functionality, you can use the Registry API functions to perform any desired operation manually.

For more information on the Registry API functions, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

145679 : How to Use the Registry API to Save and Retrieve Setting

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. This bug has been fixed in Visual Basic 6.0.

MORE INFORMATION

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

  1. Start Visual Basic 4.0, 32-bit version. Form1 is created by default. Place two command buttons on the form. Add the following code to Form1: 
       Private Sub Command1_Click()
       SaveSetting "Test1", "Test2\Test3", "TestKey", "TestValue"
   End Sub

   Private Sub Command2_Click()
       DeleteSetting "Test1"
   End Sub
  2. On the Run menu, choose Start, or press F5 to begin the application. Choose Command1 to add the nested keys to the registry. Open the Registry Editor and confirm that the information has been correctly added under the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\VB and VBA Program Settings.
  3. Return to the running application and choose Command2. VB will raise error 5 - Invalid Procedure Call. To view the workaround, stop the program and replace the single call to DeleteSetting with the two calls listed in the Workaround section above. Rerun the program and choose the second command button again. Use the Registry Editor to see that the keys have been removed correctly.
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:6/24/2004
Keywords:kbBug kbfix kbVBp600fix KB149038
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