> Does it have to be a DWORD, or a 0/1 value, or under HKCU for a
> specific reason?

This notepad test was just to make sure the registry reader works
by returning a known value.

I can change it using:

Reg.get_value("Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\VC", "Build Timing")
 == 0


For this test, if you can check that this value is the same on a fresh
win XP and 7, it's perfect. (8.0 doesn't matter here, I can restrict the
build version to 9.0)