.NET and registry

[Rohit Santhanam]

As I am reading the .NET documentation, I get the feeling
that Microsoft is trying to get rid of the registry. My
understanding is that an application built using .NET
does not use the registry at all. So, conceivably as
applications are migrated to .NET, the registry could
disappear in a future version of Windows. Does anybody
out there agree with me?

Of course, they might keep the registry for backward
compatibility purposes.

Thanks,

-Rohit

 

[Jon Skeet]

As I am reading the .NET documentation, I get the feeling
that Microsoft is trying to get rid of the registry. My
understanding is that an application built using .NET
does not use the registry at all.

It can do - have a look at the Microsoft.Win32.Registry/RegistryKey
classes.

So, conceivably as
applications are migrated to .NET, the registry could
disappear in a future version of Windows. Does anybody
out there agree with me?

I think it's very unlikely that the registry will disappear altogether,
even if it becomes less widely used than it currently is.

 

[Don Dumitru [MSFT]]

It's pretty unlikely that "the registry could disappear" very soon.

However, for some kinds of apps, there is a desire to support "xcopy
deployment" - deployment by just copying files. For those apps, having
application configuration stored in the registry would conflict with xcopy
deployment.

In addition, XML serialization of classes provides a very interesting
mechanism for doing application config. Just define a class with all of
your application settings in it, and use XML serialization to load / save
the settings. You can put off writing an editor for all of the settings,
because you can just use notepad (for a while, until your app needs to be
really polished) to change settings.

Finally, some personal speculation: The registry was invented before XML
existed. If the registry was being invented today, fresh, from nothing, XML
would probably have a huge impact on that the "registry" would look like.

--Don

 

[Anthony Moore]

I agree with all these sentiments. Using the Registry is no longer a "Best
Practice", but it is still being taken very seriously. It is clear that a
large existing code base has taken a dependency on it and it will be an
important store for applications for many years to come. It is still a
critical component of the latest releases of Windows.

There are no plans to make it go away, and there are still new features
being developed for the .NET Registry APIs.

--------------------

From: "Don Dumitru [MSFT]" <[email protected]>
References: <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: .NET and registry
Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2003 11:27:52 -0700
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It's pretty unlikely that "the registry could disappear" very soon.

However, for some kinds of apps, there is a desire to support "xcopy
deployment" - deployment by just copying files. For those apps, having
application configuration stored in the registry would conflict with xcopy
deployment.

In addition, XML serialization of classes provides a very interesting
mechanism for doing application config. Just define a class with all of
your application settings in it, and use XML serialization to load / save
the settings. You can put off writing an editor for all of the settings,
because you can just use notepad (for a while, until your app needs to be
really polished) to change settings.

Finally, some personal speculation: The registry was invented before XML
existed. If the registry was being invented today, fresh, from nothing, XML
would probably have a huge impact on that the "registry" would look like.

--Don

--
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

As I am reading the .NET documentation, I get the feeling
that Microsoft is trying to get rid of the registry. My
understanding is that an application built using .NET
does not use the registry at all. So, conceivably as
applications are migrated to .NET, the registry could
disappear in a future version of Windows. Does anybody
out there agree with me?

Of course, they might keep the registry for backward
compatibility purposes.

Thanks,

-Rohit

--

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