DOCUMENT:Q153309  11-JAN-2001  [vbwin]
TITLE   :HOWTO: Retrieve the Registered User Under Windows
PRODUCT :Microsoft Visual Basic for Windows
PROD/VER:WINDOWS:4.0
OPER/SYS:
KEYWORDS:kb16bitonly kbAPI kbRegistry kbVBp kbVBp400 kbGrpDSVB kbDSupport

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The information in this article applies to:

 - Microsoft Visual Basic Standard Edition for Windows, version 4.0 
 - Microsoft Visual Basic Professional Edition for Windows, version 4.0 
 - Microsoft Visual Basic Enterprise Edition for Windows, version 4.0 
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SUMMARY
=======

The strings related to the registered user of a particular copy of Windows are
stored in a string inside USER.EXE. They are displayed in the Help About box of
File Manager, or Explorer in Windows 95 and Windows 98. This article provides a
code sample showing how to extract this information.

MORE INFORMATION
================

Step-by-Step Example
--------------------

1. Start a new project in Visual Basic. Form1 is created by default.

2. Place a command button on the form.

3. Add the following code to the form1 code window:

      Option Explicit

      Private Declare Function GetModuleHandle Lib "Kernel" _
         (ByVal Module As String) As Integer
      Private Declare Function LoadString Lib "user" _
         (ByVal hInst As Integer, ByVal wID As Integer, _
         ByVal buf As Any, ByVal size As Integer) As Integer

      Sub Command1_Click()
       Dim ihInst As Integer
       Dim sUserName As String * 128
       Dim sOrganization As String * 128
       Dim sTitle As String
       Dim iLength As Integer
       ihInst = GetModuleHandle("user.exe")
       iLength = LoadString(ihInst, 514, sUserName, Len(sUserName))
       sUserName = Left$(sUserName, iLength)
       iLength = LoadString(ihInst, 515, sOrganization, Len(sOrganization))
       sOrganization = Left$(sOrganization, iLength)
       Print sUserName
       Print sOrganization
      End Sub

4. Press F5 to run the project. Click the command button. The information should
   be printed on the form.

REFERENCES
==========

The API can also be used if you use Visual Basic 4.0 32-bit by changing the
RegisteredOrganization and RegisteredOwner values in:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion

as explained in the Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

   Q145679 : HOWTO: Use the Registry API to Save and Retrieve Setting

For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft
Knowledge Base:

   Q88363 : Changing Name and Company After Windows Installation

Additional query words:

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Keywords          : kb16bitonly kbAPI kbRegistry kbVBp kbVBp400 kbGrpDSVB kbDSupport 
Technology        : kbVBSearch kbAudDeveloper kbZNotKeyword6 kbZNotKeyword2 kbVB400Search kbVB400
Version           : WINDOWS:4.0
Issue type        : kbhowto

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