title: Writing to 64-bit registry from 32-bit installer
body: <p>I have a 32-bit application and a 32-bit installer, written in Wise Installation Studio. <strong>I know</strong>...I shouldn't be using Wise and I should switch to something else. But for now, I'm stuck with it.</p>
  
  <p>Our application is graphics-intensive and to improve performance, we want it to disable desktop composition (Windows Aero) while running. We accomplished this on 32-bit systems by adding a registry entry at:</p>
  
  <pre><code>HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>with a value of <code>DISABLEDWM</code>.</p>
  
  <p>This sets the "Disable desktop composition" checkbox in the compatibility tab of the properties for our EXE to be checked by default.</p>
  
  <p>This works perfectly on 32-bit systems, but when running the installer on a 64-bit system, Windows redirects the creation of registry entries to <code>HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node</code>, and the flag is not set correctly. If I manually create an entry in the 64-bit registry view, then it works.</p>
  
  <p>So how can I force this registry key to be created in the 64-bit registry view from our 32-bit installer? Or is there a better way to set this property aside from creating a registry entry?</p>