In New York State what is the legal procedure to collect on a bad check? I was told you need to send a registered letter to give time to pay on check, and what if the person who gave the check never receives any notice ? What rights do they have?

You need to send your notice to the address listed on the check or a newer address if known. If the letter is sent off to the address on the check, and it is returned that they have moved with no forwarding address, or if it is merely returned refused ( they are there but won't sign) that is still considered notifying them, since you have made the effort to notify them.

After they don't pay, you will need to file in court for criminal charges,
You may go to the court and ask them for the local procedures, forms they will need and so on.

If it is for some items such as car repair or home repair, you may have additional rights to a lien on property

Your attempt to have them pay, will show that you have given them the chance to take care of this if it was merely an error or mistake.
There are a lot of bad checks just by accident, automatic redraws and the such which will be made good the next payday. They ones that were bad on purpose normally won't pay no matter what you do.