This turns out to be a bit of a red herring. Actually what happens is that since x64 systems came out, Microsoft hides the 32 bit registry under a separate node namely...HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node.
So you can use regedit to see the 32bit registry, you just need to know where to look. More information can be found here...
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896459
