Windows Registry Antics

[woodwardiocom]

Hmm, anyone out there know enough about recent versions of Windows and its registry to tell me why when I look at "foo\bar" it actually looks at "foo\wow643node\bar"? (Google has very little to say on the subject.)

Helpful replies only, please.

Comments

[hahathor.livejournal.com]

Helpful replies only, please.

What does that mean? I mean, have you had experience with teh Interwebs where it wasn't helpful? I mean... the mind, she boggles at the very thought.

Are you concerned that people will look at your sincere plea and use it as an opportunity to ramble at length about unrelated things, such as the fact that the word READ can be pronounced like either a word that is spelled the same except that it's missing a letter (RED) or a word that is spelled the same except that one letter is changed (REED)?

I mean, do you have people on your flist who would co-op your post in such a frivolous way? Cuz that's just sad.

HTH.

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

...Well, you didn't mention the word "Linux", so I suppose we'll forgo the spanking.

[hahathor.livejournal.com]

You're no fun at all.

[beowabbit]

What if I tell you she set alight the grail-shaped beacon?

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

That would be just like her.

You win the intarwebz!

[drwex]

Also, my google fu is not turning up anything useful.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

<3

[jeffrey cuscutis (from livejournal.com)]

Looks like you're on 64 bit windows. There are apparently 2 sets of registries, one 32bit and one 64 bit, but they should be generally in sync.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/305097

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

Thanks muchly! I thought it was something like that.

[muffyjo]

I'm not clear on what it is you are saying here. You look at the registry and it tells you what Key, Value or Data you are looking at, right? And you think it's looking at something in a different path than you are searching?

[muffyjo]

Ah, nevermind. Looks like Jeffrey is your man.

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

Ya, but thanks for playing!

[stevenehrbar.livejournal.com]

I assume it's actually saying "wow6432node", which means "This registry value is what is shown to 32-bit programs on 64-bit Windows."

In detail, WOW is "Windows-on-Windows", WOW64 means the support 32-bit-Windows-on-64-bit (the original WOW was support for 16-bit Windows programs on 32-bit Windows), 32node means the node for 32-bit programs.

If it really is saying wow643node, there's something weird going on.

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

It's "wow6432node". (Which explains why my Google-fu was failing me.)