Read Tridion Install Path from Registry Key

Tridion install path is stored in Windows Registry on the machine where Tridion CM is installed. It might be useful sometimes to read this value programmatically -- e.g. when you need to read some configuration files placed in the Tridion_Home\config folder.

A little issue might occur when you try to read a Registry key in a Windows 32bit vs 64bit, because these values are stored in different Registry locations.

My fellow colleague, Principal Developer Frank van Puffelen (or @puf, for friends :) ), shows a neat way of reading a Registry key irrespective of the code running on a Windows 32 or 64 bit machine:

// Opens a registry either from its normal location or from the Wow6432Node and either from HKEY_CURRENT_USER or HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

private static RegistryKey FindKeyInRegistry(string registryKey)

{

    RegistryKey key = Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey(registryKey);

    if (key == null)

    {

        key = Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey(

            registryKey.Replace(@"Software\", @"Software\Wow6432Node\"));

        if (key == null)

        {

            key = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey(registryKey);

            if (key == null)

            {

                key = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey(

                    registryKey.Replace(@"Software\", @"Software\Wow6432Node\"));

            }

        }

    }

    return key;

}

Therefore, to read the Tridion_Home directory, you can use the method below:

/// <summary>

/// Gets the Tridion Install Path

/// </summary>

/// <returns></returns>

private String GetTridionInstallPath()

{

    String output = String.Empty;

    try

    {

        RegistryKey RegKey = FindKeyInRegistry(@"Software\Tridion");

        output = RegKey.GetValue("InstallDir").ToString();

    }

    catch (Exception ex)

    {

        throw new Exception("Could not get install path!", ex);

    }

    return output;

}