Introduction

Introduction

The registry is the heart and soul of Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Windows Server 2003. In my other registry books, I said the same thing about the registry in every version of Windows since Windows 95, and by the time you're finished reading this book, I hope you'll agree. The registry contains the configuration data that makes the operating system work; enables developers to organize configuration data in ways that are impossible using other mechanisms, such as INI files; and is behind just about every feature that you think is great in Windows. More importantly, it enables you to customize Windows in ways that you can't through the user interface.

Windows and every application that runs on Microsoft's latest desktop operating systems do absolutely nothing without consulting the registry first. When you double-click a file, Windows consults the registry to figure out what to do with that file. When you install a device, Windows assigns resources to the device based on information in the registry and then stores the device's configuration in the registry. When you run an application such as Microsoft Office Word 2003, the application looks up your preferences in the registry. If you were to monitor the registry during a normal session, you'd see that it serves up thousands of values within minutes.

In this book, you will learn how to customize the registry, but you must also learn how to maintain it. You must learn how to back up the registry so you can restore it if things go awry. You must also learn the best practices for editing the registry safely.

The registry is an invaluable tool for the IT professional who is deploying, managing, and supporting Windows. Did you know that most policies in Group Policy and system policies are really settings in the registry? Does that give you any ideas? Did you know that scripting registry edits is one of the best ways to deploy settings to users? This book teaches you about policies, scripting, and much more. For example, you will learn how to deploy registry settings during Windows and Microsoft Office 2003 Editions installations. Some deployment problems can be solved only by using the registry, so I describe the most common IT workarounds, too. For example, I show you how to prevent Windows from creating the Microsoft Outlook Express icon on the desktop when a user logs on to the computer for the first time.