Registry Watcher C#

WMI can sometimes be interesting to work with…I think I understand your question, so take a look at the code snippet below and let me know if it’s what you’re looking for.

// --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
// <copyright file="Program.cs" company="">
//   
// </copyright>
// <summary>
//   Defines the WmiChangeEventTester type.
// </summary>
// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
namespace WmiExample
{
    using System;
    using System.Management;

    /// <summary>
    /// </summary>
    public class WmiChangeEventTester
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Initializes a new instance of the <see cref="WmiChangeEventTester"/> class.
        /// </summary>
        public WmiChangeEventTester()
        {
            try
            {
                // Your query goes below; "KeyPath" is the key in the registry that you
                // want to monitor for changes. Make sure you escape the \ character.
                WqlEventQuery query = new WqlEventQuery(
                     "SELECT * FROM RegistryValueChangeEvent WHERE " +
                     "Hive="HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE"" +
                     @"AND KeyPath="SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\.NETFramework" AND ValueName="InstallRoot"");

                ManagementEventWatcher watcher = new ManagementEventWatcher(query);
                Console.WriteLine("Waiting for an event...");

                // Set up the delegate that will handle the change event.
                watcher.EventArrived += new EventArrivedEventHandler(HandleEvent);

                // Start listening for events.
                watcher.Start();

                // Do something while waiting for events. In your application,
                // this would just be continuing business as usual.
                System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(100000000);

                // Stop listening for events.
                watcher.Stop();
            }
            catch (ManagementException managementException)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("An error occurred: " + managementException.Message);
            }
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="sender">
        /// The sender.
        /// </param>
        /// <param name="e">
        /// The e.
        /// </param>
        private void HandleEvent(object sender, EventArrivedEventArgs e)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Received an event.");
            // RegistryKeyChangeEvent occurs here; do something.
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// </summary>
        public static void Main()
        {
            // Just calls the class above to check for events...
            WmiChangeEventTester receiveEvent = new WmiChangeEventTester();
        }
    }
}