powershell: reading registry values

okay, i admit i still don’t fully have a grasp on how this works as the registry provider is confusing as all hell. however, here are a few links and tidbits that will be valuable later when i have to come back to this:

working with registry keys (technet) - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd315270.aspx
testing existence of registry value - http://powershell.com/cs/blogs/tips/archive/2010/04/08/test-whether-registry-value-exists.aspx

remote registry module - http://archive.msdn.microsoft.com/PSRemoteRegistry
remote registry hkcu (awesome example script) - http://www.powershellcommunity.org/Forums/tabid/54/aft/6059/Default.aspx