How to insert registry entries from a .reg file into 32-bit registry on 64-bit Windows

Question

In 64-bit Windows (Vista/7), there's HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node where all the 32-bit registry stuff is. If I have a .reg file with some keys in it, how can I tell regedit to import it into the 32-bit registry (under Wow6432Node) rather than the 64-bit registry?

Even if I put the Wow6432 path into the registry keys in the .reg file, Windows "cleverly" ignores them and puts them in the main 64-bit registry.

Solution 1

You should be able to access the 32-bit registry exclusively using the 32 bit version of regedit. Just import your .reg files using:

\Windows\syswow64\regedit.exe <REG_FILE.reg>

Solution 2

If you're using reg import yourfile.reg from a 32 bit executable or a batch file, and for some crazy reason you want the keys inside yourfile.reg to NOT be redirected to Wow6432Node, simply use the following syntax:

reg import yourfile.reg /reg:64

As easy as that.

Solution 3

The reg tool installed with the 64-bit version of Windows is aware of the registry virtualization technique. It has two new switches: /reg:32 and /reg:64. If you want to apply a registry export from a 32-bit system to a 64-bit system, use the following command line:

reg import <CONF-APP-32.reg> /reg:32

The reg tool has a command line help that explains this in a very short form via reg import /?.

...you will find this also online (though a bit hard to google) for example:

• MS-DOS reg command help
• Reg - Edit Registry | Windows CMD | SS64.com

Comments

[Deanna]

Shame there's no apparent way to do this in the file itself as we won't always have control over how it's imported.

[Wolf]

Don't use regedit for this. The reg command would have accepted your patch. But (maybe only meanwhile) actions like import and export across the 64-bit/32-bit boundary are well supported by the 64-bit reg tool. Please have a look on my answer.

[Wolf]

I think this does not answer the actual question. Why not put the real answer first, adding the given supplement information later (or, even better, as a footnote)?

[Wolf]

I think that's much easier now.