Unexpected Registry redirection

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I am writing keys to the registry using a .reg file. The keys are deemed to go to

VB

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE

on my Windows 7 64 bits machine, this works fine. I can read the keys using RegOpenKeyEx(..., KEY_READ | KEY_WOW64_64KEY, ...).

Anyway, on another Windows 7 64 bits, they go to the 32 bits reflected part of the registry

VB

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node

instead. In this case I need to use RegOpenKeyEx(..., KEY_READ | KEY_WOW64_32KEY, ...).

The .reg file simply goes like this:

VB

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Company\Product]
"ComputerName"="Computer Name"

I cannot figure out what causes the different behaviors on similar machines.

Any hint ?

Posted 2-Feb-12 0:21am

YvesDaoust

Updated 2-Feb-12 0:23am

v4

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Richard MacCutchan · Answer 1 · 2012-02-02T00:42:00

Solution 1

I think you may need to remove the KEY_WOW64_64KEY selector; see here[^] for Microsoft's explanation of these features.

Posted 2-Feb-12 0:42am

Richard MacCutchan

Comments

YvesDaoust 2-Feb-12 6:52am

I agree with that, but I still want to understand what causes the redirection on one machine and not on the other.

BTW: I haven't solved this.

Richard MacCutchan 2-Feb-12 6:59am

Read the Microsoft documentation: not that it really explains it clearly. The whole 32/64 implementation has been what we in the UK would call a bit of a dog's breakfast.

Chuck O'Toole · Answer 2 · 2012-02-02T01:03:00

1) the .REG file has nothing to do with where the symbol goes with respect to the WOW / 64 bit redirection.

2) the application that *processes* the .REG file will end up being the determining factor.

3) if you ran the REG file through regedit32, it will go into the WOW redirected area. If you ran it through regedit64 (or the default regedit application), it will go into the normal location.

4) You should *not* be coding WOW keys directly. If your code has to know if the key is redirected or not, then you are mixing 32 and 64 bit applications which can happen but it rare enough that all you'll end up doing is confusing yourself. Windows will figure out where to look based on the "bitness" of your application.