problem reading registry in 64 bit machine

Question

I have developed a 32 bit application (build for x86) which will later be deployed in 64 bit machine. I have set some configuration in registry so when application starts in 32 bit machine there is no problem reading its value but when deployed in 64 bit machine I can not read value properly as the path of the Registry is changed. To make things clear, in 32 bit machine I have registry as following

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MyApplication\InstallationPath] "folder"="C:\Program Files\MyApplication"

But When I look at 64 bit machine, this is shifted to

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE*Wow6432Node*\MyApplication\InstallationPath] "folder"="C:\Program Files\MyApplication"

Inside my application I have to query the value of installation path the obvious thing I have done is Query the value with the Hard coded string "HKLM\SOFTWARE\MyApplication\InstallationPath", but which is not valid for x64 bit machine, Please write your thoughts how to overcome this problem.

Answer 1

You shouldn't have to do anything special in your code. 32-bit applications transparently access the portion of the registry under Wow6432Node.

To convince yourself of this launch the 32-bit build of regedit.exe (available under Windows\SysWOW64) and take look around the registry

Answer 2

I don't really understand your problem: the Wow6432Node is transparent from the caller's point of view.

That means the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MyApplication\InstallationPath will be automatically mapped to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\MyApplication\InstallationPath when accessed from a 32-bit application running on a 64-bit machine.

So your code should work out of the box.