Run .exe from VB.NET fails on some systems? - vb.net

Question

I'm trying to run an .exe from my VB.NET application. On my system, everything works fine (Win7) but when i sent it to my friend for him to try (Win8), all it does is to open the .exe folder location in explorer.
Here's the code im using to run it:
Public fsxPath As String = My.Computer.Registry.GetValue(
"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator\10.0", "AppPath", Nothing)
Function startFsx()
' Do some things...
Process.Start(fsxPath & "fsx.exe")
Form1.ListView1.Items.Add("Work: START FSX.exe successfull")
Return True
End Function
Anyone know why it doesn't work for my friend?
Edit:
Okey so i tried everything i can think of now... On my PC the fsxPath when i show it in an Msgbox as follows:
Msgbox("Path:" & fsxPath & "fsx.exe")
For me, it returns "C:\FSX\fsx.exe
For my friend however it just returns "G:\Flight Simulator X\", the fsx.exe part is missing...

Answer 1

I don't know why it cuts the search path, however my solution was to assign the value to a text label and then assign the fsxExePath with the value of the label as follows:
' Hack to get fsxExePath...
Label1.Text = fsxPath
Label1.Text = Label1.Text & "fsx.exe"
fsxExePath = Label1.Text
Label1.Text = ""

Answer 2

Oh! 7 years later. Hope this would help someone :
The string you get from the registry will likely retain a null terminator at the end of the string to mark the end of that string. That's because the registry API is an old code, reminiscent of C/C++, and that null char terminator (&h00) is still there, you won't just see it via MsgBox/MessageBox because it was not meant to be meaningful visually anyway.
The first thing you do when you get a string from the registry is to make sure you have no null terminator anywhere :
Process.Start(fsxPath.Replace(vbNullChar, "") & "fsx.exe")
If you let the null terminator there, it appears dot Net handling of string value on his system will just discard whatever char/string you have after that null terminator. Appending "fsx.exe" after the string from the registry won't give you a valid executable to launch, only FSX directory, why it is opened in the explorer.
As to why it worked on your system despite being an older version (Win7 agains Win8) is for Microsoft to answer. Maybe Win8 is smelly, or the dotNet version on his computer is a version that overlooked that null terminator from registry retrieved string.
It works in the label, probably because the label Text property itself handles the existence of a null terminated string.
Anyway, I explained the likely cause. If I'm wrong, you get the point : maybe there is a line break, or one of the non printable char.. Just validate the string from the registry before using it.