Windows Vista Forums
Vista Forums Home Join Vista Forums Windows 7 Forum Vista Tutorials Tags
Welcome to Windows Vista Forums. Our forum is dedicated to helping you find solutions with any problems, errors or issues you are experiencing with Windows Vista. The Vista forum also covers news and updates and has an extensive Windows Vista tutorial section that covers a wide range of tips and tricks.

Go Back   Vista Forums > Vista Newsgroups > Vista security

Vista - Strange Registry Virtualization issue

Reply
 
Old 08-01-2008   #1 (permalink)
Emmanuel Stapf [ES]


 
 

Strange Registry Virtualization issue

Hi,

During the installation of my application which requires elevated
privileges, I install some registry keys under HKLM. When I first launch
my application, I read data from HKLM.

However on some vista machine it does not work. Using ProcessMonitor, I
saw that instead of trying to read HKLM he actually tries to read from
the virtualized HKLM, i.e. HKCU\Software\Classes\VirtualStore\MACHINE.

Why does it do that? I've verified that I'm only opening the key with
read access, not write access?

Thanks,
Manu

PS: the vista machines are all running with UAC turned on.

My System SpecsSystem Spec
Old 08-01-2008   #2 (permalink)
FromTheRafters


 
 

Re: Strange Registry Virtualization issue


"Emmanuel Stapf [ES]" <manus@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OkO45oB9IHA.3848@xxxxxx
Quote:

> Hi,
>
> During the installation of my application which requires elevated
> privileges, I install some registry keys under HKLM. When I first launch
> my application, I read data from HKLM.
>
> However on some vista machine it does not work. Using ProcessMonitor, I
> saw that instead of trying to read HKLM he actually tries to read from the
> virtualized HKLM, i.e. HKCU\Software\Classes\VirtualStore\MACHINE.
>
> Why does it do that?
Vista provides the virtualization for programs not written for Vista.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/m.../cc138019.aspx



My System SpecsSystem Spec
Old 08-02-2008   #3 (permalink)
Emmanuel Stapf [ES]


 
 

Re: Strange Registry Virtualization issue

FromTheRafters wrote:
Quote:

> Vista provides the virtualization for programs not written for Vista.
> http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/m.../cc138019.aspx
This is not exactly what I was referring too. My problem is not whether
virtualization is enabled or not. It is that the documentation says it
will merge the content of the virtual store with the one in HKLM and it
is clearly not doing that since my application cannot see the keys that
are in HKLM.

Regards,
Manu
My System SpecsSystem Spec
Old 08-04-2008   #4 (permalink)
FromTheRafters


 
 

Re: Strange Registry Virtualization issue


"Emmanuel Stapf [ES]" <manus@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23Fe2IqK9IHA.1428@xxxxxx
Quote:

> FromTheRafters wrote:
Quote:

>> Vista provides the virtualization for programs not written for Vista.
>> http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/m.../cc138019.aspx
>
> This is not exactly what I was referring too. My problem is not whether
> virtualization is enabled or not. It is that the documentation says it
> will merge the content of the virtual store with the one in HKLM and it is
> clearly not doing that since my application cannot see the keys that are
> in HKLM.
My understanding is that it reads both and presents a
merged view to the application with the virtualized keys
taking precedence over the ones in HKLM. If you want
to make HKLM take precedence - remove the keys from
the virtualized store and it should use the HKLM ones.

In other words, make the virtual store keys in question
non-persistent and the HKLM will be used each time
because no virtualized version will be found.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb530198.aspx


My System SpecsSystem Spec
Old 08-04-2008   #5 (permalink)
Emmanuel Stapf [ES]


 
 

Re: Strange Registry Virtualization issue

FromTheRafters wrote:
Quote:

> My understanding is that it reads both and presents a
> merged view to the application with the virtualized keys
> taking precedence over the ones in HKLM. If you want
> to make HKLM take precedence - remove the keys from
> the virtualized store and it should use the HKLM ones.
The issue is that there are no keys in the virtualized store, the keys
are only in the HKLM one. So I don't understand why he can't read the
one from HKLM.
Quote:

> In other words, make the virtual store keys in question
> non-persistent and the HKLM will be used each time
> because no virtualized version will be found.
I agree this is what should be happening, but it is not. Any hint on how
to debug this so that we can find the root cause of this behavior?

Thanks,
Manu
My System SpecsSystem Spec
Old 08-04-2008   #6 (permalink)
Emmanuel Stapf [ES]


 
 

Re: Strange Registry Virtualization issue

FromTheRafters wrote:
Quote:

> My understanding is that it reads both and presents a
> merged view to the application with the virtualized keys
> taking precedence over the ones in HKLM. If you want
> to make HKLM take precedence - remove the keys from
> the virtualized store and it should use the HKLM ones.
The issue is that there are no keys in the virtualized store, the keys
are only in the HKLM one. So I don't understand why he can't read the
one from HKLM.
Quote:

> In other words, make the virtual store keys in question
> non-persistent and the HKLM will be used each time
> because no virtualized version will be found.
I agree this is what should be happening, but it is not. Any hint on how
to debug this so that we can find the root cause of this behavior?

Thanks,
Manu
My System SpecsSystem Spec
Old 08-06-2008   #7 (permalink)
FromTheRafters


 
 

Re: Strange Registry Virtualization issue


"Emmanuel Stapf [ES]" <manus@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:4897CFCD.8040802@xxxxxx
Quote:

> FromTheRafters wrote:
Quote:

>> My understanding is that it reads both and presents a
>> merged view to the application with the virtualized keys
>> taking precedence over the ones in HKLM. If you want
>> to make HKLM take precedence - remove the keys from
>> the virtualized store and it should use the HKLM ones.
>
> The issue is that there are no keys in the virtualized store, the keys are
> only in the HKLM one. So I don't understand why he can't read the one from
> HKLM.
>
Quote:

>> In other words, make the virtual store keys in question
>> non-persistent and the HKLM will be used each time
>> because no virtualized version will be found.
>
> I agree this is what should be happening, but it is not. Any hint on how
> to debug this so that we can find the root cause of this behavior?
Sorry, no. You may want to contact Microsoft support
for this issue. This function is implemented in the kernel.
They may suggest that you rewrite the program so that
it doesn't have to use virtualization at all - which is the
best path anyway.



My System SpecsSystem Spec
Reply

Thread Tools


Similar Threads
Thread Forum
Virtualization of registry and files? Vista security
Vista registry virtualization Vista General
Vista registry virtualization Vista security
File and registry virtualization doesn't work! Vista General
Vista's registry virtualization Vista General


Vista Forums is an independent web site and has not been authorized,
sponsored, or otherwise approved by Microsoft Corporation.
"Windows Vista", the Start Orb, and related materials are trademarks of Microsoft Corp.
© Designer Media Ltd

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46