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by bboreham 1934 days ago
Prior to the registry most settings were in files like WIN.INI, and ISVs put settings there. The registry took this idea, added more structure and an API so simultaneous writes don’t screw up.

With the registry, each vendor puts its stuff under a path like HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\VendorName, even Microsoft.
1 comments
samstave 1933 days ago
Yep. The INI files were the original ways to store config info...

The registry was the next step. What would be great is an online serve for such - a machine gets booted and it asks for your config unam UUID etc - and then just slurps your snapshot down.

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bboreham 1932 days ago
When I first heard about Active Directory (1998?) I thought it would work a bit like this - a distributed Registry.
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