How can I read 64-bit registry key from a 32-bit process?

Question

I've been using the value of key MachineGuid from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Cryptography to uniquely identify hosts, but from 32-bit processes running on 64-bit computers, the value appears to be missing. I guess it's searching under Wow6432Node, where it is indeed missing. According to this you should be able to get to the right key by adding a flag, but below code still doesn't appear to do the job. What am I missing?

const
  KEY_WOW64_64KEY=$0100;
var
  r:HKEY;
  s:string;
  i,l:integer;
begin
  //use cryptography machineguid, keep a local copy of this in initialization?
  l:=40;
  if RegOpenKeyEx(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE,PChar('Software\Microsoft\Cryptography'),
    0,KEY_QUERY_VALUE,r)=ERROR_SUCCESS then
   begin
    SetLength(s,l);
    if RegQueryValue(r,'MachineGuid',PChar(s),l)=ERROR_SUCCESS then
     begin
      SetLength(s,l);
      RegCloseKey(r);
     end
    else
     begin
      //try from-32-to-64
      RegCloseKey(r);
      if RegOpenKeyEx(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE,PChar('Software\Microsoft\Cryptography'),
        0,KEY_QUERY_VALUE or KEY_WOW64_64KEY,r)=ERROR_SUCCESS then
       begin
        l:=40;
        if RegQueryValue(r,'MachineGuid',PChar(s),l)=ERROR_SUCCESS then
          SetLength(s,l)
        else
          l:=0;
        RegCloseKey(r);
       end;
     end;
   end;

Answer 1

Call reg.exe using this path C:\Windows\sysnative\reg.exe For example:

C:\Windows\sysnative\reg.exe QUERY "HKLM\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\JDK" /v CurrentVersion

source: https://stackoverflow.com/a/25103599

Answer 2

I would suggest you use the IsWow64Process() function to know when you are a 32-process running on a 64-bit OS, and then only apply the KEY_WOW64_64KEY flags in that specific condition. If the app is a 32-bit process on a 32-bit OS, or a 64-bit process on a 64-bit OS, the flags is not needed.

For example:

const 
  KEY_WOW64_64KEY = $0100; 
var 
  key: HKEY; 
  str: string; 
  len: DWORD; 
  flag: REGSAM;
  wow64: BOOL;
begin 
  flag := 0;
  wow64 := 0;
  IsWow64Process(GetCurrentProcess(), @wow64);
  if wow64 <> 0 then flag := KEY_WOW64_64KEY;

  if RegOpenKeyEx(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, 'Software\Microsoft\Cryptography', 0, KEY_QUERY_VALUE or flag, key) = ERROR_SUCCESS then 
  try
    SetLength(str, 40); 
    len := Length(str) * SizeOf(Char); 
    if RegQueryValueEx(key, 'MachineGuid', nil, nil, PByte(Pointer(s)), @len) <> ERROR_SUCCESS then len := 0;
    SetLength(str, len div SizeOf(Char)); 
  finally
    RegCloseKey(key); 
  end; 
end;