Java on Windows: Windows RegOpenKey(...) returned error code 2.

So we faced a strange warning message being pumped out to the console after deploying a brand new Java application to a Windows machine.

Jun 19, 2008 3:19:20 PM java.util.prefs.WindowsPreferences openKey
WARNING: Could not open windows registry node Software\JavaSoft\Prefs at
root 0x80000002. Windows RegOpenKey(...) returned error code 2.
Jun 19, 2008 3:19:20 PM java.util.prefs.WindowsPreferences WindowsRegOpenKey1
WARNING: Trying to recreate Windows registry node Software\JavaSoft\Prefs at root 0x80000002

After a quick search in google, I found that It might be a bug concerning the restricted users on Windows. There's two options to solve this problem:

• Add use privileges, as described here.


• Or, move to Java 5

I think we'll migrate to Java 5 :)