Chapter 1: Windows Server 2003 Registry Overview

Overview

R is for Rocket.

--Ray Bradbury

This book is meant for system administrators, technical support personnel, and advanced users of Windows NT-based systems (Windows NT/2000, Windows XP and products of the Windows Server 2003 family). Most of you already have at least some previous knowledge of the registry. Its prototype already existed in Windows 3.1, and most programmers already knew what the registry is if it comes up in conversation. In the world of Science Fiction (SF) R is for Rocket, according to the classics. To continue this analogy, for most Windows professionals R certainly stands for the Registry. Registry topics became popular with the user community after the release of the Windows 95 operating system. This isn't surprising, since the registry is the most important component of all modern operating systems belonging to the Windows family, none of which can run without it. The registry can be found anywhere in the Windows world-including in Pocket PCs.

Note 

Of course, most computer-literate and advanced users will immediately point out that there is a vast area in the world of operating systems where there is no registry at all-namely, in operating systems other than Windows. Various UNIX and Linux clones are good examples. However, one of the greatest obstacles in the general usage of these operating systems is the fact that they don't support some of the popular Windows applications. If these applications were available, these operating systems would be even more popular than they currently are. There are, of course, different ways of running Windows applications on UNIX and Linux, for example, starting them within an emulator such as Windows Application Binary Interface (WABI), WINE or VMWare. Another approach (which is better one from the standpoint of reliability) involves porting the application's code so that it runs natively. If you choose this approach, you'll have to emulate Windows registry, because Windows applications that are ported to run in UNIX environments still require the equivalent of a registry and the information it contains.

When the system is up and running smoothly, the registry remains in the background and works silently (so silently, actually, that end users might not even notice its existence). However, like the system made famous by the film "Matrix", it is present everywhere in the Windows world and never fails to make this fact evident when something goes terribly wrong. To demonstrate this point, the following question is sufficient: Have you ever received a message informing you that the operating system couldn't be loaded because of registry corruption? An example of such a message is provided below:

   Windows could not start because the following file is missing   or corrupt:   \WINNT\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM   You can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows Setup using   the original Setup floppy disk of CD-ROM.   Select 'r' at the first screen to repair.

The example provided above clearly demonstrates that a single error in the system registry (the System file mentioned in the messages shown above contains registry information) can influence the whole system configuration and even prevent the operating system from booting. Furthermore, there are some applications, which can only run properly after editing the system registry. For this reason, the importance of understanding the registry and having practical skills to be able to work with it can't be underestimated.

This chapter provides a brief overview of the Windows NT/2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 registry, describes registry structure and data types, and also covers the methods of registry-data storage used in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.

So, what exactly is the registry? It is a centralized database that stores all of the settings of the operating system and the applications running on it. This makes the registry similar to various INI files, as well as to files like Autoexec.bat and Config.sys that were used in earlier Windows versions. The registry also stores information about all of the hardware, including Plug and Play devices, Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) data, and file associations. The registry contains all of the data related to the applications that support Plug and Play and OLE, networking parameters, hardware profiles, and user profiles.

To summarize, if there is any hardware or software in the computer system that influences it in some way, you can be certain that the system registry stores information about that component.



Windows Server 2003 Registry
Unicode Explained
ISBN: 1931769214
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 129

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