Software registration values for the WOW subsystem appear under the following Registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WOW
The WOW subkeys have the same names as headings in the SYSTEM.INI file, and the values are the same items as were contained in the Windows for MS-DOS SYSTEM.INI file. All are REG_SZ value types.
The information provided here is for troubleshooting only.
WOW subkey | Description and defaults |
Boot | Lists drivers and Windows 3.x modules, with these entries and default values to map Windows 3.x drivers to Windows NT. Provided for applications that seek this information. Mostly ignored, but drivers are loaded from this source, such as MMSYSTEM.DLL. comm.drv = comm.drv |
boot.description | Provided for applications that seek this information. Not actually used by the WOW subsystem. display.drv = VGA |
Compatibility | Used to translate 16-bit Windows APIs and messages to 32-bit equivalents. MAILSPL = 0x40000000 (for MS Mail) |
Keyboard | Contains information about the keyboard, provided for applications that seek this information, with these kinds of entries and default values: keyboard.dll = (empty) |
NonWindowsApp | Contains information used by non-Windows–based applications. This is handled automatically by Windows NT. Unless you manually added values to SYSTEM.INI in Windows 3.x, this subkey is empty. |
Standard | Contains entries specific to running Windows 3.x in standard mode. Unless you manually added values to SYSTEM.INI in Windows 3.x, this subkey is empty. |
The [386Enh] section is read from the SYSTEM.INI file for 16-bit Windows-based applications that need it. There is no Registry equivalent, because Windows NT ignores this information.