I have a pure Installscript project. In the release tab, under setup.exe, I am setting the Required Execution Level to Administrator.
In this install, I am creating several registry keys, all of them under the Wow6432Node (32-bit part of the registry).
The machine below has UAC enabled.
When I run the installer on a Windows 2008R2 machine, by right-mouse-clicking setup.exe and selecting Run as Administrator, the install goes through and creates all the required entries under the 32-bit part of the HKLM\Software registry.
However, when I just double click on setup.exe, I am prompted by the UAC. When agreeing to grant permissions, the install goes through. However, the registry entries are partially created under the 32-bit part of the HKLM\Software registry and the partially under the 64-bit part of the registry.
I was under the impression that by setting required execution level to "Administrator", the install should behave the same way irrespective of the way it is launched (either by RMC -> Run as administrator) or double clicked and agreeing to the UAC prompt.
Am I missing something here?
Is this something that anyone else has seen? Or maybe someone has some idea?
Unfortunately, that is not the case. The registry keys are partially created in both the 32- and 64-bit areas. There are no duplicate keys in either area.
I used Visual Studio to check the embedded manifest of setup.exe and it looks perfect.
Huh. Is there anything common to the keys that mysteriously end up in the non-WOW6432Node areas? For example, do they share a source? The three common sources of registry keys I can think of are: registry view, InstallScript registry API calls, and self-registration. The behavior of the InstallScript registry API calls can be modified by changes to the global REGDB_OPTIONS, and thus could be reflect different changes to this global if other code conditions on whether it's elevated.
Well. It turns out that there was one point where one of the developers was setting the REGDB_OPTIONS in a wrong way. He had the | and the ~ reversed. I changed it and all is well now.
