VB NET Read Remote Registry - vb.net

Question

I'm trying to get the architecture and the operating system of many remote pcs.
In order to do that i'm querying Win32_OperatingSystem and parsing the "Caption" for the O.S. and for the architecture im reading OSArchitecture .
In Windows XP this value does not exists, so i thought that reading the HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment\PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE
would have done the trick like this code:
Try
Dim co As New ConnectionOptions
co.Impersonation = ImpersonationLevel.Impersonate
co.Authentication = AuthenticationLevel.PacketPrivacy
co.EnablePrivileges = True
co.Username = username
co.Password = password
Dim scope As New ManagementScope("\\" & machine.Text & "\root\cimv2", co)
scope.Connect()
Dim environmentKey, asd2 As Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey
Dim asd As String
environmentKey = RegistryKey.OpenRemoteBaseKey(RegistryHive.LocalMachine, machine.Text)
asd2 = environmentKey.OpenSubKey("SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment", True)
asd = asd2.GetValue("PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE")
Debug.Print("asd: " + asd)
environmentKey.Close()
Catch ex As Exception
MessageBox.Show(ex.ToString)
End Try
My problem is: if im trying this code I get an System.Security.SecurityException: "Accessing remote registry not permitted"
I am, and i know the administrator username and password.
In fact if I run a simple cmdkey /add:targetname /user:username /pass:password
It works.
So why do I have to run a cmdkey /add even if i have alredy specified the username and password in the ConnectionOptions ??
P.S. Sorry for my bad English

Answer 1

This may very well be because remote registry access is not enabled on the target PC.
Even if you know the administrator credentials, remote access to the registry will not work if the feature isn't enabled on the target PC.
To enable it, see the following Microsoft Knowledge Base Article, which covers a variety of Windows Operating Systems: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/314837

Answer 2

All right, i got it:
Const HKEY_current_user As String = "80000002"
Dim options As New ConnectionOptions
options.Impersonation = ImpersonationLevel.Impersonate
options.EnablePrivileges = True
options.Username = ".\administrator"
options.Password = "my_password"
Dim myScope As New ManagementScope("\\" & RemotePCHostname & "\root\default", options)
Dim mypath As New ManagementPath("StdRegProv")
Dim mc As New ManagementClass(myScope, mypath, Nothing)
Dim inParams As ManagementBaseObject = mc.GetMethodParameters("GetDWORDValue")
inParams("hDefKey") = UInt32.Parse(HKEY_current_user,System.Globalization.NumberStyles.HexNumber) 'RegistryHive.LocalMachine
inParams("sSubKeyName") = "SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment"
inParams("sValueName") = "PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE"
Dim outParams As ManagementBaseObject = mc.InvokeMethod("GetStringValue", inParams, Nothing)
If (outParams("ReturnValue").ToString() = "0") Then
MessageBox.Show(outParams("sValue").ToString())
Else
MessageBox.Show("Error retrieving value : " + outParams("ReturnValue").ToString())
End If