C# 4 and .NET 4

29
Manipulating files
and the registry
WhaT ’ s in This ChaPTer
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Exploring the directory structure
Moving, copying, and deleting fi les and folders
Reading and writing text in fi les
Reading and writing keys in the registry
Reading and writing to isolated storage
This chapter examines how to perform tasks involving reading from and writing to fi les and the C#
system registry. Microsoft has provided very intuitive object models covering these areas, and in this
chapter, you learn how to use .NET base classes to perform the listed tasks. In the case of fi le system
operations, the relevant classes are almost all found in the System.IO namespace, whereas
registry operations are dealt with by classes in the Microsoft.Win32 namespace.
The .NET base classes also include a number of classes and interfaces in the System
.Runtime.Serialization namespace concerned with serialization — that is, the
process of converting data (for example, the contents of a document) into a stream of
bytes for storage. This chapter does not focus on these classes; it focuses on the classes
that give you direct access to fi les.
Note that security is particularly important when modifying either fi les or registry entries. Security
is covered entirely in Chapter 21, “ Security. ” In this chapter, however, we assume that you have
suffi cient access rights to run all the examples that modify fi les or registry entries, which should be
the case if you are running from an account with administrator privileges.
managing The file sysTem
The classes that are used to browse around the fi le system and perform operations such as moving,
copying, and deleting fi les are shown in Figure 29 - 1.
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