TechAmok

[topicmaker]

Neowin has published an open letter to Microsoft on Windows 8. So guys, what's your opinion?

Dear Microsoft,

Congratulations on recently releasing the Windows 7 release candidate.
As I've mentioned before, it's looking to an excellent product and have
given my reasons why I think people should upgrade.

But let's p...read more

[admin]

Access to the registry is defined through windows API functions, therefore the registry (in theory) could be removed, and the functions changed so that the programs that use the registry never know they're using files instead of the registry. Abstraction is a beautiful thing.

The registry needs removing because it's inconsistent. To hold settings, we already have ini files, config files, local settings, roaming settings, and the registry. To exemplify the inconsistency, consider programs that run at startup. To run a program at startup for just you, you can place an entry in the "startup" directory in your start menu, or you can enter a registry value at "HKCU/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Explorer/Run". Then if you want to stop a program running at startup, you need to check both of these places in order to find the link. In this case, the registry is completely redundant as everything that can be done in the registry can be done using shortcuts and the startup directory.

The registry (IMHO) should be removed and all configuration settings should be handled using the local/roaming settings directories. This way, it provides easy access to settings, and your registry settings can move around with you if your on a network.

Imagine how easy it would be to change explorer's behaviour if all of the configuration data for (for example) explorer was in "Explorer.ini", and how convenient it would be if those changes followed you round on every computer you sat at!