Set registry value

What the Set registry value action does, which types and value formats it supports, and when the step fails.

Set registry value writes a named value to the device's Windows registry. The device must be online.

Configuration fields

Field	Type	Required	Default	Description
Key path	text	Yes	—	Full path of an existing key. It starts with the complete hive name: `HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE`, `HKEY_CURRENT_USER`, `HKEY_USERS`, `HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT` or `HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG`, for example `HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Example`. Short forms such as `HKLM` do not work. The step does not create missing keys. Supports variables `${{ … }}`.
Value name	text	Yes	—	Name of the value. If it does not exist yet, it is created. You cannot set a key's unnamed default value. Supports variables.
Type	selection	Yes	String (REG_SZ)	String (REG_SZ), Expandable string (REG_EXPAND_SZ), DWORD (32-bit), QWORD (64-bit) or Multi-string (REG_MULTI_SZ). Binary values are not supported.
Value	text	No	empty	The data to write. Supports variables. Leading and trailing spaces are removed. The format depends on Type, see below.

Type	Value format
String (REG_SZ), Expandable string (REG_EXPAND_SZ)	Any text. An empty value writes an empty string.
DWORD (32-bit)	Whole number in decimal from `-2147483648` to `2147483647`. Hexadecimal such as `0x1` does not work.
QWORD (64-bit)	Whole number in decimal from `-9223372036854775808` to `9223372036854775807`.
Multi-string (REG_MULTI_SZ)	One entry per line. Empty lines are dropped.

Platform support

Platform	Supported
Windows	Yes
Linux	No
macOS	No

Outputs

Output	Description
`success`	Succeeded: `true` when the value was written, `false` when the device reported an error.

Result behaviour

The step writes the value with the Windows system account. So HKEY_CURRENT_USER is the system account's registry, not the signed-in user's. To change a signed-in user's settings, use a Run script step with Logged-in user instead.

Situation	Result
The key exists and the value is written	Succeeded. An existing value with the same name is overwritten, including its type.
DWORD (32-bit) or QWORD (64-bit) with a value that is not a whole number in range	Failed
Key path or Value name is empty after variables are resolved	Failed
The key does not exist, or the hive name is not recognised	Failed. The step details show the reason.
Access to the key is denied	Failed
The device runs Linux or macOS	Failed
The agent does not answer in time	Timed out. Whether the value was written is unknown.
The device is offline when the step starts	Device offline. Depending on If device is offline, the run ends with this status or the step is skipped.

Running the step again with the same settings writes the same value again and succeeds. Registry changes can affect applications and Windows itself, so test the step on a single device first.

See also: Create an automation · Registry Change

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