Reading Registry in Windows 7 behaving strangely - c++

Question

I am trying to read registry's "(Default)" values in Windows 7 in c++, and following is the code I am using:
string GetSZValueUnique( HKEY openKey, const char* regkey, const char* keyName )
{
HKEY hKey = 0;
BYTE data[512] ;
DWORD szsize = 512 ;
string value ;
LONG retValue = RegOpenKeyEx( openKey, regkey, 0, KEY_READ, &hKey ) ;
if ( retValue == ERROR_SUCCESS )
{
LONG retV = RegQueryValueEx( hKey, keyName, 0, 0, data, &szsize ) ;
if ( retV == ERROR_SUCCESS )
{
char* _value = reinterpret_cast<char*>(data) ;
value = _value ;
RegCloseKey (hKey) ;
return value ;
}
else
{
char msg[512] ;
FormatMessage(FORMAT_MESSAGE_FROM_SYSTEM,0,(DWORD)retV,0,&msg[0],512,0) ;
error_string = &msg[0];
MessageBox( 0, error_string.c_str(), "Query : GetSZValueUnique", 0 );
}
}
else
{
char msg[512] ;
FormatMessage(FORMAT_MESSAGE_FROM_SYSTEM,0,(DWORD)retV,0,&msg[0],512,0) ;
error_string = &msg[0];
MessageBox( 0, error_string.c_str(), "Open : GetSZValueUnique", 0 );
}
RegCloseKey (hKey) ;
return "" ;
}
And this is how I am calling the above function :
string ts3 = GetSZValueUnique( HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, "SOFTWARE\\TeamSpeak 3 Client\\", "" );
if ( !ts3.empty() )
MessageBox( 0, ts3.c_str(), "GetSZValueUnique", 0 );
For some Keys it works for some it doesn't : For example, it works for "Adobe", "TrendMicro", "CheckPoint", "RegisteredApplications" but not for "7-Zip", "RTLSetup", "Sonic", "TeamSpeak 3 Client"
I am out of ideas now, can somebody point out what's wrong ?
EDIT: I have checked the code with "(Default)" values and other values as well, for keys its not working it never goes past the *"if ( retValue == ERROR_SUCCESS )"* check and I always get "Specified file not found" error. For keys its working, it gets past the "*if ( retValue == ERROR_SUCCESS )*" check and returns the value if its present, if its not present it simply displays the error message "Specified file not found".
EDIT 2: I Checked again : and it seems the keys it works for have their corresponding clone in "Wow6432Node" subkey under SOFTWARE... hmmm... so how do I get it working ?

Answer 1

You can specify the flag::
"KEY_WOW64_32KEY" in "samDesired" parameter of the RegOpenKeyEx if you want to access Wow6432Node Keys i.e., 32-bit keys from your app.
"KEY_WOW64_64KEY" in "samDesired" parameter of the RegOpenKeyEx if you want to access normal Keys i.e., 64-bit keys from your app.
Note:: Your doubt has already been cleared by #WhozCraig in comments with the suitable links. If he answers, do accept his answer over mine.