Registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths

The registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths serves two main goals:

• To map executable names (xyz.exe) to the program's fully qualified path
• To append information to the PATH environment variable

This key is also used to register and control the behavior of the system on behalf of applications.

This registry key is consulted when the WinAPI/Shell function ShellExecuteEx() is called to find the correct application.

Executables that are registered as subkeys under this key are able to be started with the start command of cmd.exe even though they are not in the PATH environemnt variable.

With Windows 7 and later, the recommended location is not under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE but rather under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths.

By default, in a Windows 10 installation, this key contains the following subkeys:

• cmmgr32.exe which references cmcfg32.dll in its value of CmstpExtensionDll
• dfshim.dll
• fsquirt.exe
• IEDIAG.EXE which references iediagcmd.exe in its default value.
• IEDIAGCMD.EXE
• IEXPLORE.EXE
• install.exe
• licensemanagershellext.exe
• mip.exe
• mplayer2.exe which references wmplayer.exe
• pbrush.exe which references mspaint.exe
• PowerShell.exe
• setup.exe
• SnippingTool.exe
• table30.exe
• TabTip.exe
• wab.exe
• wabmig.exe
• wmplayer.exe
• WORDPAD.EXE
• WRITE.EXE which references WORDPAD.EXE