What can be the reason for getting different values for the same registry key?-CodePudding

I want to read the registry key \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProductName.

When I check the key in the registry editor, I'm getting the value "Window 10 Pro". However, when I'm reading the same key in my c# application, the result is "Window 10 Enterprise" Any ideas what the reason can be for this strange behaviour?

The OS is a Windows 10 64bit version, the application is targeted to .NET Framework 4.6.1, the platform for building in visual studio is 'Any CPU'.

The code snippet from my application:

registryKey = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey(
    @"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion", false);
if (registryKey != null)
{
    nameString = registryKey.GetValue("ProductName", "-Unknown-").ToString();

CodePudding user response：

I'd first check to make sure those two things actually ran on the same computer.

Otherwise, there is one thing that can do this. HKLM\Software has an entry called WOW6432Node. The "WOW" here is for "Windows on Windows". It's used when older 32-bit processes access the registry to redirect the query into that section, similar to the Program Files vs Program Files (x86) folders. So a 32-bit process accessing here:

\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProductName

will instead read from here:

\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProductName

But again: for this particular key it would be very strange indeed for those two items to have different values.

CodePudding user response：

Some additional information: This question and answer explain how to force an application to read from \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Key and not from \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Key: How to avoid a wow6432node-redirection