XP user and system settings

[vkgupta]

Windows XP keeps various user/system/application
defaults/settings/preference spread into various files, folders and
registry, like:

Documents and Settings\Default User\Application Data\
Documents and Settings\Default User\Local Settings\
Documents and Settings\Default User\ntuser.dat
Documents and Settings\Default User\ntuser.pol
Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\
Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\
Documents and Settings\All Users\ntuser.dat
Documents and Settings\All Users\ntuser.pol
Documents and Settings\<user_id>\Application Data\
Documents and Settings\<user_id>\Local Settings\
Documents and Settings\<user_id>\UerData\
Documents and Settings\<user_id>\ntuser.dat
Documents and Settings\<user_id>\ntuser.pol

and so on...
Can some one throw some insight on what is what or give some pointers
where to find appropriate docs?

 

[Jerry]

One, some, or all of these may help:

Windows XP Booklist

Microsoft Windows XP Inside Out 2nd ed ISBN 0-7356-2044-X
www.microsoft.com/mspress
Microsoft Windows XP Professional Resource Kit 3rd ed ISBN 0-7356-2167-5
www.microsoft.com/mspress
Microsoft Windows Command-Line ISBN 0-7356-2038-5
www.microsoft.com/mspress
Microsoft Windows Registry Guide 2nd ed ISBN 0-7356-2218-3
www.microsoft.com/mspress

Windows XP Pro 2nd ed The Missing Manual ISBN 0-596-00898-8
www.missingmanual.com
Home Networking The Missing Manual ISBN 0-596-00558-X
www.missingmanual.com

Windows XP in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition ISBN 0-596-00900-3 www.oreilly.com
Windows XP Annoyances for Geeks, 2nd ed ISBN 0-596-00876-7 www.oreilly.com
Windows XP Hacks, 2nd ed ISBN 0-596-0000918-6 www.oreilly.com
PC Hardware in a Nutshell ISBN 0-596-00513-X www.oreilly.com
PC Annoyances 2nd Edition ISBN 0-596-00882-1 www.oreilly.com
PC Hardware Annoyances ISBN 0-596-00715-9 www.oreilly.com
Internet Annoyances ISBN 0-596-00735-3 www.oreilly.com
Home Networking Annoyances ISBN 0-596-00808-2 www.oreilly.com

Windows XP Solutions 2nd ed ISBN 0-471-74752-1
www.wiley.com/compbooks/pcmag
Windows XP Speed Solutions ISBN 0-7645-7814-6
www.wiley.com/compbooks/pcmag
Guide to Home Networking ISBN 0-7645-4473-X www.wiley.com/compbooks/pcmag
Windows XP MVP (Most Valuable Professional) ISBN 0-7645-9786-8
www.wiley.com/compbooks

Hacking Windows XP ISBN 0-7645-6929-5 www.TweakXP.com

The BIOS Companion ISBN 0-9681928-0-7 www.electrocution.com
Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier ISBN 0-13-145536-2 www.rojakpot.com


Downloadable Guides

XP Tweak Guide (TweakGuides_XPTC.zip) from www.TweakGuides.com
Windows Registry Guide (registryguide2003.exe) from www.winguides.com
Error Message for Windows (MSWinErr.zip) from www.gregorybraun.com

 

[Wesley Vogel]

ntuser.dat files are part of the registry.

The XP registry is made up of the following files.

One NTUSER.DAT for each user on the machine, some templates and repair.
%HOMEDRIVE%\Documents and Settings\Administrator\NTUSER.DAT
%allusersprofile%\ntuser.dat
%HOMEDRIVE%\Documents and Settings\Default User\NTUSER.DAT
%HOMEDRIVE%\Documents and Settings\LocalService\NTUSER.DAT
%HOMEDRIVE%\Documents and Settings\NetworkService\NTUSER.DAT
%userprofile%\NTUSER.DAT
%windir%\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\systemprofile\NTUSER.DAT
%windir%\repair\ has these files...
default
ntuser.dat
sam
security
software
system

All hives are stored in %systemroot%\SYSTEM32\CONFIG. Except
HKEY_CURRENT_USER. That's stored in %userprofile% or
C:\Documents and Settings\Your Name Here.

The major hives and their files are as follows:

Hive File Backup File
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE SOFTWARE SOFTWARE.LOG
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SECURITY SECURITY SECURITY.LOG
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM SYSTEM SYSTEM.LOG
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SAM SAM SAM.LOG
HKEY_CURRENT_USER NTUSER.DAT ntuser.dat.LOG
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT DEFAULT DEFAULT.LOG

Description of the Windows 2000 Registry
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...000/server/reskit/en-us/regentry/AboutReg.asp

Registry structure
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pr...elp/28e3337c-70ff-41e1-86ef-2581350712a9.mspx

Ntuser.pol
[[An archive file on client computers that is updated each time the
Administrative Templates CSE sets a policy setting. As processing completes,
an Ntuser.pol containing the history of applied registry based policies in
the Group Policy managed policies tree is written to the root of the user’s
profile containing user policy settings and to the “all users” profile
containing computer policy settings.(%Allusersprofile%\ntuser.pol for
computer policy and %userprofile%\ntuser.pol for user policy.)]]
http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/Library/74635e11-a0e2-42e0-b3c6-a5ccbc43c9311033.mspx

Default Local Disk Folders...

Folder Name: Documents and Settings
Contents: Account information for each user who is granted access on the
computer. Each user account is represented by a subfolder assigned the
user name. Folders under each user account folder include My Documents,
Desktop, and Start Menu.

These include:

Documents and Settings\Administrator
Documents and Settings\All Users
Documents and Settings\Default User
Documents and Settings\LocalService
Documents and Settings\NetworkService
Documents and Settings\You

Some of the above are Hidden folders.

Administrator is for the Administrator account.

All Users is used for many things. Your Desktop and Start Menu, for
example, display what is in All Users *and* what is in your Desktop and
Start Menu folders.

Default User is used when creating new accounts.

I am not really sure what LocalService & NetworkService are for, but...

LocalService is the NT Authority\Local Service user account, the Windows XP
System account.

Obviously, NetworkService has something to do with networks, the
NetworkService account.

The LocalService and NetworkService accounts perform things like synchronize
the time, etc.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In