Hi all,

I need to read the following file in vb .net: "C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore\DataStore.edb". It contains info about installed software updates. I've taken a look at the file by opening it with notepad. This isn't a plain-text file obviously, but I can find and see the text I want easily with Notepad, and I want to extract this text by using VB .NET.

The problem is, i've tried to read the file by using an io.streamreader, but I can't get the same results as in notepad. I've tried to change encoding but that doesn't work. I mean in Notepad, I can read some text easily: "A s e c u r i t y i s s u e h a s b e e n i d e n t i f i e d" [...], but the only thing I get with the streamreader is some bunch of ugly characters, and the text I saw with Notepad isn't there.

Do I have to read the file in binary or what? HOW NOTEPAD DOES IT? HOW DO I READ THIS FILE LIKE NOTEPAD DOES?

I absolutely need to extract some updates info that aren't in either the registry or WMI/QFE.

Any idea?