Shell Keys

Starting with version 6.00, SHLWAPI formalises the notion of registry keys that various shell modules have a common interest in. These shell keys include

• Software\Classes
• Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
• Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Associations
• Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts
• Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell
• Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam
• Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam\MUICache

in each of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and HKEY_CURRENT_USER.

SHLWAPI provides functions to open or create a shell key, and to operate just on a value in a shell key:

• SHGetShellKey
• SKAllocValueW
• SKDeleteValueW
• SKGetValueW
• SKSetValueW

Their implementations provide for caching the open keys, so they are more efficient than might seem just from their prototypes. They are all exported only by ordinal. None are yet documented.