writing to the 32-bit registry from a 64-bit application (that darn WOW6432Node) -- dotnet general

Chris Mullins
11/3/2006 3:14:47 PM

I need to write to the 32-bit registry, and need to do so from a 64-bit MSI.
It never occurred to me that this would be difficult...

I have an application that installs some 64-bit binaries for development use
in Visual Studio 2005. As such I want them to appear in the .Net References
menu when someone attempts to "Add References" to their project.

Doing this means (normally) writing to the registry key:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\.NetFramework\v2.0.50727\AssemblyFoldersEx\MyNewBinaries,
with a default string value of C:\Program Files\MyBinaries.

However, since this is a 64-bit installer, and Visual Studio 2005 is only
32-bit, the actual registry key I want to install is:

HKLM\Software\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\.NetFramework\v2.0.50727\AssemblyFoldersEx\MyNewBinaries,
with a default string value of C:\Program Files\MyBinaries.

All of which seems simple enough. However, when I run the installer, the
registry key is installed in the 64-bit location instead of the explicitly
specified 32-bit.

If I log verbose output from the msiexec.exe, it thinks it installed the key
in WOW6432Node. However, the result is in the normal Software node. I
realize that 32-bit installers see only the WOW6432Node as the normal node,
but it was my understanding that a 64-bit installer would have access to the
entire registry. Instead it seems to translate a write to the WOW6432Node
as a write to the normal Software node. I posted the project to the web so
you can see of yourselves. Any help would be appreciated.

http://www.coversant.com/downloads/Setup1.vdproj.RENAME.txt

(that's really a standard vdproj file, but I'm too lazy to add in the
extensions to IIS, so I just renamed it).

I can write an installer class to work around this issue, but I was
wondering if there was a more direct solution.

--
Chris Mullins, MCSD.NET, MCPD:Enterprise
http://www.coversant.net/blogs/cmullins

Adrian Accinelli
11/3/2006 7:58:06 PM

[quoted text, click to view]

This is strictly MSI related. Follow-up in microsoft.public.windows.msi.

dotnet general : writing to the 32-bit registry from a 64-bit application (that darn WOW6432Node)