Registry question

[Tom Brown]

I notice that Windows mail rules are stored in a different place than in XP
and it seems to be in a place where all rules would apply to all users.
Actually, it is under the HKEY_Current_User folder but ... .how does it know
which rules to apply to different users?

In XP, it was in

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\{Identity Number}\Software\Microsoft\Outlook
Express\5.0\Rules\Mail

But, in Vista, it's in

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\5.0\Rules\Mail

So, they seem to have bypassed the \Identities\{Identity Number}\ route.
How can that work?

TIA,

Tom

 

[Steve Easton]

Because there's a different Hive for each user.
That's why it's named: HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Note the CURRENT part.

It is loaded from the UserProfile in documents and settings.

 

[Tom Brown]

Steve,

Ok, that sounds reasonable. But, I wonder why XP also used Identities in
the path and it was also under HKey_Current_User? I guess I don't know what
a Hive is and that's probably the key (pardon the pun).

Tom

 

[Steve Easton]

HKEY_CURRENT_USER is called a hive as is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

The hive for each user is actually the NTUSER.DAT file located at
C:\Documents and Settings\%UserName% which is loaded for the person logged on.
So, when you open regedit and look at items in HKEY_CURRENT_USER you are looking at that
users NTUSER.DAT file