help with registry keys

I want to be able to be able to read and change the value of a key from the registry. I have a fairly good idea of how to change it, but I am having trouble reading the value. I have looked at the msdn, but it has not helped. Here is the code:

Code:

case WM_CREATE:
             {
             RegOpenKey(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE,"SOFTWARE//Microsoft//Windows NT//CurrentVersion//Winlogon",&hKey);
             char str[MAX_PATH];
             LONG strc = MAX_PATH;
             DWORD hi;
             hi = RegQueryValue(hKey,"Shell",str,&strc);
             if(hi!=ERROR_SUCCESS)
             {
                 SetWindowText(hwnd,"Error");
                 wsprintf(str,"%d",hi);
                 MessageBox(NULL,str,"Hi",0);
             } 
             else
             {
             SetWindowText(hwnd,str);
             }
             }
             break;

I have declared hKey at the beginning of the file. What am I doing wrong?

am having trouble reading the value

What kind of trouble?

wsprintf(str,"%d",hi);

Are you working ANSI or UNICODE?

Code:

RegOpenKey(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE,"SOFTWARE//Microsoft//Windows NT//CurrentVersion//Winlogon",&hKey);

I doubt the API likes that.
That string is equal to just what it says - SOFTWARE//Microsoft//Windows NT//CurrentVersion//Winlogon.
Generally, for paths, you must use only ONE of the character:
SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/Winlogon

However, I'm not sure if the registry likes slashes at all, so you might try with the proper backslashes:
SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion\\Winlogon

I'm working with ansi. When I try with // it has system error code 6. When I try with / dev-cpp gives warnings about invalid excape characters. When I try with \ or \\ it has system error code 2.

Originally Posted by Anubis208

When I try with / dev-cpp gives warnings about invalid excape characters.

No, that's not right.
'/' is not an escape character - '\' is.

When I try with \ or \\ it has system error code 2.

Error #6 means invalid handle - possibly invalid path format?
Error #2 means path can't be found, which is also weird.

Regardless of the slashes, I get either a 2 or 6, and I know that key exists, I can open it in regedit.