CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#-4.0windows-7-x64windows
Bhavik Patel
Bhavik Patel

Reputation: 772

About Security concern by adding registry key in windows 7 Desktop Application

I have used to add registry key in my windows application for security purpose. It works great in XP operating System But when I install my Application on Windows 7 OS System(64 Bits) then after 4-5 days my application doesn't find reg key in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE.

My Application again asked to add registry key in system. I don't know how my software's reg key is removed or deleted from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE in Windows 7 OS 64 bits.

To add reg key in C#.Net App, I used below code:

// Create an instance of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE registry key
RegistryKey parentKey = Registry.LocalMachine;
// Open the SOFTWARE registry sub key under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE parent key
  RegistryKey softwareKey = parentKey.OpenSubKey("SOFTWARE", true);
  // Create a DaveOnC# registry sub key under the SOFTWARE key
  RegistryKey subKey = softwareKey.CreateSubKey("MySoftWareRegKey");
  subKey.SetValue("Name", encryptedMac, RegistryValueKind.String);

     subKey.Close();
     softwareKey.Close();
     parentKey.Close();

Again I want to mention that no error has been generated in application at running time, But after some days (may be 4-5 Days) my application couldn't find reg key in location in Windows 7 64 bit System and forced to me to add it again to execute my application.

So directly my question is how to add Reg Key permanently in Windows 7 OS at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE.

Any suggestions or answers are highly appreciate. Thanks in Advance!!!

Upvotes: 0

Views: 436

Answers (1)

HTTP 410
HTTP 410

Reputation: 17618

I suspect this is related to registry virtualisation. Your 32-bit interactive process (registry virtualisation doesn't apply to services or 64-bit processes) probably doesn't have permission to create this registry setting on Windows 7, so the system diverts it to a per-user setting as described in that link. As documented in that link, you can use the Reg.exe command-line utility with the FLAGS option to query the state of the virtualisation flags for any registry key.

I'm not sure why it disappears after a period of time - maybe it's checking under a different user or a different virtualisation policy has been applied? But the real fix is to run the program with admin rights if that's feasible, so that the key can be written properly.

EDIT: In response to your comment, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node is the 32-bit equivalent of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software (although 32-bit applications are not aware of this redirection). So this is normal behaviour for a 32-bit program. What tool are you using to check the registry key - I suspect it's not showing the re-direction?

Upvotes: 1

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