Wix Bootstrapper RegistrySearch NOT finding value

Question

I'm trying to search the registry in my Bootstrapper Bundle file to check if a program is firstly installed and a second search to check the bitness of the program installed.

Then I want to use the values returned to either install a 32bit or 64bit driver for the program.

The issue is that in the log file created when I run this in cmd: Bootstrapper.exe -l "c:\temp\LogFileName.log", I get this line:

[52BC:4F84][2023-05-17T12:59:37]i000: Registry value not found. Key = 'SOFTWARE\[COMPANY_NAME]\', Value = 'Bitness'

I added Bitness as a string value into the registry editor and put the value as 64 as the program is indeed 64bit.

These are my registry searches:

<!-- Check if program is installed -->  
<util:RegistrySearch Id="CheckProgramInstalled"
                        Root="HKLM"
                        Key="SOFTWARE\[COMPANY_NAME]\[PRODUCTNAME]"
                        Result="exists"
                        Variable="ProgramInstalled" />
<!-- Check bitness of the program -->   
<util:RegistrySearch Id="CheckProgramBitness"
                        After="CheckProgramInstalled"
                        Root="HKLM"
                        Key="SOFTWARE\[COMPANY_NAME]\[PRODUCTNAME]"
                        Value="Bitness"
                        Result="value"
                        Variable="ProgramBitness" />

Answer 1

It looks like there are at least two separate issues here.

Unrecognised / empty properties

Your registry search includes this key:

Key="SOFTWARE\[COMPANY_NAME]\[PRODUCTNAME]"

but the error message reports the key like this:

Key = 'SOFTWARE\[COMPANY_NAME]\'

This suggests:

1. the [COMPANY_NAME] property is not recognised (are you sure the underscore is correct?);
2. the [PRODUCTNAME] property is empty.

You could check whether these properties are being set correctly, or consider using WiX variables instead - this article might help.

Bitness-specific registry views

By default, <util:RegistrySearch> searches the 32-bit registry view. This is critical in your case because if you have the 64-bit application installed then your registry search won't find the relevant keys. For more information on registry redirection, see this Microsoft article.

To search the 64-bit registry view, you will need to set Win64="yes". See the accepted answers and comments here and here.