John said:
Can anybody please shed some light on why Windows XP makes entries in the
registry categories
KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ ....
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\....
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-448...
every time an application is started, a file is opened, saved, deleted, etc.
Hundreds of useless entries are generated this way.
I this normal and can it be prevented?
JohnLouis
Hehe ...
Well it's just one of those things.
This is a very old and long running argument.
In the beginning, there was no registry. Then some bright spark thought
.... Oh let's move all registration and configuration data out of all the
separate config files, and into a central "hive" called the registry.
This is all well and good *if*, and only *if*, it is a formal
specification that *everyone* adheres to.
Unfortunately it isn't, and they don't. Some apps use the registry, some
use config files. Most use both!!! And that includes nearly all
Microsoft software right down to and including the OS itself.
*nix OSs and apps use configuration files only, and are criticised
because of it, but I'll tell you what, for all the "manual editing of
text based config files" hooha that the "point and drool" fraternity
complain about, it's a hell of a lot easier to recover a broken *nix
installation than a Windows one.
Take my recent experience:
Setup a WinXP based system and get it tuned to perfection.
Install one of Microsoft's "updates".
Discover that I've apparently "lost" my MP3 audio codec (the one that
lives in the system32 dir called l3codecp.acm ... not the "strange" and
crippled WMP9 version). No amount of reinstalling will bring it back.
Why? Because of the damned registry (apparently a whole subsection got
wiped out by the DRM "update").
Solution - do a "repair" re-install of Windows. This seems to work,
except now the contents of my WINDOW\help dir has somehow got scrambled.
Certain index sections in some help files just show a red cross now.
Why? The damned registry again.
Solution - wipe the hard drive and start again.
The registry is one of those things that I wish had never been
conceived, along with DRM, activation, file protection, palladium ... zzz
Its bloated, unwieldily, unmanageble, and down right bloody dangerous.
--
Regards,
[H]omer
"The only liberties people have, are those they take."
Palladium is not the solution, it is the problem.
www.antitcpa.com