How to access the 64-bit registry from a 32-bit Powershell instance?

Question

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

Answer 1

If the enviroment variable PROCESSOR_ARCHITEW6432 exists and has the value AMD64 then you are running 32bit on a 64bit machine. Than you have to run the powershell in the virtual 64bit path %windir%\sysnative.

if ($env:PROCESSOR_ARCHITEW6432 -eq "AMD64") {
    write-warning "changing from 32bit to 64bit PowerShell..."
    $powershell=$PSHOME.tolower().replace("syswow64","sysnative").replace("system32","sysnative")

    if ($myInvocation.Line) {
        &"$powershell\powershell.exe" -NonInteractive -NoProfile $myInvocation.Line
    } else {
        &"$powershell\powershell.exe" -NonInteractive -NoProfile -file "$($myInvocation.InvocationName)" $args
    }

    exit $lastexitcode
}