Set-ItemProperty sets Registry Value as String on some systems instead of DWord, why?

windows powershell registry dword
Erik picture Erik · May 28, 2013 · Viewed 53.1k times · Source

I try to create an item using Set-ItemProperty in PowerShell, which works on most systems:

New-PSDrive -name HKCR -PSProvider Registry -root HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT

Set-ItemProperty -Path HKCR:\Software\MyCompany\ -Name Level -Value 5 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

This creates a DWORD-value on most Windows 7 systems, but I have found one system where this creates a STRING-value instead, and I want to know: why? What could happen that the systems behave differently? All don't have that value already set, all use the same base image using the same Powershell version.

Btw, I found that by using the following code, I can explicitly set a type, so I already solved the problem:

New-ItemProperty -Path HKCR:\Software\MyCompany\ -Name Level -Value 5 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -PropertyType DWord

But just for curiosity, I want to know why the systems behave differently.

Answer

Shay Levy picture Shay Levy · May 28, 2013

I don't have an answer to why it happens but to avoid such instances, be explicit. Use the Type (dynamic) Parameter and specify a RegistryValueKind value (you can also use it with New-ItemProperty) :

Set-ItemProperty -Path HKCR:\Software\MyCompany -Name Level -Value 5 -Type DWord

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