Remote registry: OpenRemoteBaseKey not working

Question

Hi
I'm trying to read a remote registry key. I have the Remote Registry service running on on the target machine, and I can read the key using `reg query`. In all honesty, this is good enough for my purposes.
PS C:\> reg query "\\remote-machine\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer" /v VersionHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer    Version    REG_SZ    9.11.9600.17420
However, I'm curious to know why I can't do this with Powershell and OpenRemoteBaseKey. I've tried the following steps
from here:
PS C:\> $remote = "remote-machine"PS C:\> $type = [Microsoft.Win32.RegistryHive]::LocalMachine
PS C:\> $reg = [Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey]::OpenRemoteBaseKey($type, $remote )
PS C:\> $regpath = "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer"
PS C:\> $productkey = $reg.OpenSubKey($regpath)
PS C:\> $productkey.getvalue("Version")
You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression.
At line:1 char:1
+ $productkey.getvalue("Version")
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [], RuntimeException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvokeMethodOnNull
Inspecting the values produced, $productkey is null, and $reg appears to be empty:
PS C:\> $reg
Name Property
PS C:\> $reg.GetType()
IsPublic IsSerial Name BaseType
True False RegistryKey System.MarshalByRefObject
PS C:\>
So, why would `reg query` work, while `OpenRemoteBaseKey()` does not? I can use `reg query` well enough in my scripts, but I'd prefer something a little more Powershell-y.
Cheers

Answer 1

When you update IE, it does not necessarily update the 'Version' value in the registry.
-- Bill Stewart [Bill_Stewart]
Okay. Are you referring to what is stated in the following paragraph from the same page you linked before?
Internet Explorer 3.x does not add the version value to the registry. Instead, it adds a "build" value to the same registry key and updates the "IVer" string value to "103." For backward compatibility, Internet Explorer 4.0 and later versions change or add the build value. For Internet Explorer 3.x, the build value is a string that contains the four-character build number. (For example, "1300" is the build value for Internet Explorer 3.02). For Internet Explorer 4.0 and later versions, the build value is a string that contains a five-character value, followed by a period and four more characters, in the following format:
If so, I think it does not apply after IE4. In which case, as all the machines on my domain are Windows 7 or Server 2008 installs, I don't think it's likely that they have such an old version installed.