Actually the Registry is a significant improvement to the OS. If you know what you are doing you can change everything about the OS. If you know how to read it! From there you can change properties of any application/hardware profile. Including the removal of ANY hardware and all referenced drivers while the machine is on so that when you reboot you can add your new equipment! Most people just don''t understand it and tend to think that is sux... Other benefits are that you can make changes and not have to reboot in order for them to take effect since it is read on demand and not cashed!
That is like saying I hate C++ because I can''t get it to work correctly??? Learn to use the tool first then make it work for you.

quote: Original post by Anonymous Poster

Actually the Registry is a significant improvement to the OS. If you know what you are doing you can change everything about the OS.

And if you don''t know what you are doing, it makes it 100x more easy to break it and 100x more difficult to actually change anything you want to change. It''s a barrier for most people. If I want to alter Program A''s properties, I''d rather not be running the risk of altering Program B or Hardware C with a misplaced command.

quote: From there you can change properties of any application/hardware profile. Including the removal of ANY hardware and all referenced drivers while the machine is on so that when you reboot you can add your new equipment!

Funny, I have added new hardware to my system before without having to delve into the registry itself. Your point is not clear.

There are much cleaner ways to implement similar functionality without having to mangle the entire system''s settings all into 2 monolithic files. Organised under complex names that mean nothing to most people (HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT??). And almost impossible to browse.

quote:
Most people just don''t understand it and tend to think that is sux... Other benefits are that you can make changes and not have to reboot in order for them to take effect since it is read on demand and not cashed!

Er, no, this -totally- depends on how you''re using it. Hardware may usually read from the registry all the time, but software is more likely to read from it at startup and write at shutdown.

quote: That is like saying I hate C++ because I can''t get it to work correctly??? Learn to use the tool first then make it work for you.

Recognise that there can still be defects inherent to a tool despite the fact that you like it.

1) The Software is dynamic! You do not have to reboot the machine unless there is a component that is in use or has connection to Low level OS components.
2) If you want security then don’t buy Win 9x (it''s that simple)... Get NT and make yourself a end user, then when you upgrade software/Hardware then log in ad Administrator if you are afraid of the computer
3) The editing of the reg. for hardware purposes was in a reply to a specific Hardware comment made above.. So this is a valid statement
4) You can dynamically add and remove certain types of hardware without rebooting the machine

All of these points are a Facts and can not be disputed.

quote: Original post by Fresh

Forgive me if I am wrong - but isn''t that what happens in win2k? Just interested; I haven''t yet obtained myself a copy.
r.

In Win2K COM objects get stored into the registry in about 5 different global places under the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT tree. Win2K does not store these seperate. Open Ole/COM View in the VC++ tools section and that viewer basically will give you an overview of what is int he registry.

After you get familiar with that, create a C++ COM object, with two interfaces and install it using regsvr32 . Go back to VC++ and and delete an interface and reinstall the DLL using Component Services. Component Services should pick up the AppID, CLSID, Typelib, and Interfaces that make up that typelib, delete them and reregister the new COM object. Here is where you realize the problem with the registry. This does not happen and what you are left with is orphaned COM classes in your registry. Later when registering a similar COM object you will find this gives you problems because of the orphaned keys. Cleaning the keys is not an easy task because they are long alphanumeric strings. One thing to remember when working with the registry and COM is that regsvr32 uses the code in the DLL to install and overwrite a DLL. If the code doesn''t know about the registered class(ie you deleted it and compiled) then it will not get unregistered. OLE/COM Viewer reads the registry for its output and because of this it can differ greatly from the Component Services application(this is a regsvr32 GUI wrapper). After 2 or 3 development cycles while usingthe registry, windows is hosed and needs to be manually cleaned if you are not careful about your registering and unregistering keys in the registry.

My long winded 2c about the horrid thing called the registry.
Kressilac

Win2K makes strides in managing this process, but it is by far not complete.