winreg2

winreg2 - A Node.js module allowing access to the Windows Registry by using the built-in REG.exe.

winreg2 is a fork of the original node-winreg, written in order to support the async/await API and ES modules but designed to be as close to the original API yet lightweight as possible.

Installation

npm install winreg2

Caveats

The original library manually used __defineGetter__ to enforce the read-only on all properties; this is not enforced (but still recommended) in this new library in order to help with console.log messages.

In addition, child_process.exec is used to spawn the REG.exe processes, which may allow for remote code injection and execution (see the Node.js docs page). While winreg2 does rudimentiarily implement some sanitization (encoding all special characters) it is probably incomplete so sanitise all names and values to prevent such vulnerabilities.

Also, there are issues regarding variable expansion: if for example one tries to run the following the output differs from expectation of the expanded value of $HOME (note: as winreg2 uses PowerShell, the variables are denoted with $var and not %var% as in cmd.exe), because winreg2 escapes dollar signs automatically:

await regKey.set("valueName", "$HOME");
console.log(await regKey.get("valueName")); // The string literal "$HOME"

To fix this, replace "$HOME" with process.env.HOME

await regKey.set("valueName", process.env.HOME);
console.log(await regKey.get("valueName")); // should be "C:\\Users\\..."

Finally, exports have been changed. Registry is no longer a default export but rather a named export, while the three enum types (Hive, Arch and RegType) are exported as separate exports instead of being attached as static properties of Registry.

Example

The API is mostly the same except for the Promises being returned instead needing callbacks:

import { Registry, Hive } from 'winreg2';
import { assert } from 'node:assert';
let regKey = new Registry({
    hive: Hive.HKCU,                                        // open registry hive HKEY_CURRENT_USER
    key:  '\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Run' // key containing autostart programs
});
try{
    let items = await regKey.values();
    items.forEach(item=>{
        console.log(`ITEM: ${item.name}\t${item.type}\t${item.value}`);
    });
}catch(e){
    console.error('Something went wrong:'+  e);
}