rfdes said:
Well -
I did some more reading and it turns out that the key has some embedded null characters. SysInternals has a tool called RegDelNull.exe which did the trick. Seems so easy when all is said. Boy, what a pain. I don't understand why you cannot del a key with embedded nulls but evidently so. If you have any further knowledge I would be most grateful.

thanks
Jiim
Nothing else I can contribute at this time. Glad you got it resolved. That's not to say I don't have further knowledge, but just not on this subject.