If you launch a 32-bit instance of Powershell (%SystemRoot%\\syswow64\\WindowsPowerShell\\v1.0\\powershell.exe), then the registry provider only sees the limited 32-bit part
With .NET API you can read 64-bit values like this:
$key = [Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey]::OpenBaseKey([Microsoft.Win32.RegistryHive]::LocalMachine, [Microsoft.Win32.RegistryView]::Registry64) $subKey = $key.OpenSubKey("SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework") $root = $subKey.GetValue("InstallRoot")