accessing HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData

Question

Can anyone tell me why I can\'t access the registry key of \"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Installer\\UserData\"?

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Answer 1

High odds that you are running your program on the 64-bit version of Windows and it is forced to run in 32-bit mode. The registry redirector will make you actually read the keys in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node. And yes, that one also has a Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer key but it is pretty empty. Use Regedit.exe to compare.

The simplest fix is to remove the forcing. Project + Properties, Build tab, set the Target platform setting to AnyCPU. If you have VS2012 and up then untick the "Prefer 32-bit" option. Repeat for the Release configuration. If you must run in 32-bit mode then you can use the .NET 4+ RegistryKey.OpenBaseKey() method, passing RegistryView.Registry64.