True, but that's still not really what I'd call random or arbitrary. registry settings are things that should be user settings User settings are most of the t

True, but that's still not really what I'd call random or arbitrary. registry settings are things that should be user settings User settings are most of the time registry settings since that thing is used where other OS use plain files :) But I know what you mean, some of the choices which were once made are strange and because of the sometimes annoying "let's keep things backwards compatible forever" principle it's also not likely to change soon. Then again, pretty sure for remapping there are workarounds in the form of creating your own keyboard layout for which MS has tools. Now if changing a keyboard layout still requires a UAC prompt (I really hope it doesn't) you're still nowhere.