2 ms·

It’s /etc but harder to browse and edit. Or, from the contrary perspective: it’s the 500 places config lives on Linux, but in one place instead. (Except it st

It’s /etc but harder to browse and edit. Or, from the contrary perspective: it’s the 500 places config lives on Linux, but in one place instead. (Except it still has a deep hierarchical structure, so that second one is kiiiinda not entirely true, in that you can run into exactly the same issues as scattered config files on Linux)

nullindividual 3y ago
You can search for keys and values across all loaded hives. This makes finding things in the registry much easier. Editing, sure, you've got essentially a single GUI application and CLI or programmatic access. Your options are certainly more limited than the plethora of text editors available.
- pests 3y ago
  > you've got essentially a single GUI application and CLI or programmatic access You can export a registry path as a text file, make changes in perferred editor, then import it again. It's annoying but I've done it before when needed.
- uxp8u61q 3y ago
  Or you can use powershell that allows you to browse the registry as if it were a filesystem. PS> cd HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion PS> ls [...bunch of stuff...] PS> gp Themes DesktopBackground DesktopBackground : c:\windows\web\wallpaper\[...default system wallpaper...]
  - imtringued 3y ago
    That kind of defeats the purpose, doesn't it?
    - uxp8u61q 3y ago
      How so? I don't follow. It's still the same optimized, global, secure key-value store. It just has a different interface if you cannot possibly fathom using different tools than the ones you use to deal with the filesystem. Pwsh is pretty neat in that regard. Besides the actual filesystems drives, many systems have "providers" that allow you to treat their objects as files: the registry, environment variables, the functions defined in your session, the variables, the aliases... Unix's "everything is a file" became "everything is an item".
ElectricalUnion 3y ago
I think the only two "real" differences between throwing stuff in a folder and the registry is that: * a uncorrupted registry hive is supposed to be Directed Acyclic Graph, (while a modern filesystem can have arbitrary cycles with symlinks and bind mounts and junctions) and; * the registry has more limited name length limits, even assuming Windows somewhat low filesystem name length limits.

nullindividual 3y ago

You can search for keys and values across all loaded hives. This makes finding things in the registry much easier. Editing, sure, you've got essentially a single GUI application and CLI or programmatic access. Your options are certainly more limited than the plethora of text editors available.

pests 3y ago
> you've got essentially a single GUI application and CLI or programmatic access You can export a registry path as a text file, make changes in perferred editor, then import it again. It's annoying but I've done it before when needed.
uxp8u61q 3y ago
Or you can use powershell that allows you to browse the registry as if it were a filesystem. PS> cd HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion PS> ls [...bunch of stuff...] PS> gp Themes DesktopBackground DesktopBackground : c:\windows\web\wallpaper\[...default system wallpaper...]
- imtringued 3y ago
  That kind of defeats the purpose, doesn't it?
  - uxp8u61q 3y ago
    How so? I don't follow. It's still the same optimized, global, secure key-value store. It just has a different interface if you cannot possibly fathom using different tools than the ones you use to deal with the filesystem. Pwsh is pretty neat in that regard. Besides the actual filesystems drives, many systems have "providers" that allow you to treat their objects as files: the registry, environment variables, the functions defined in your session, the variables, the aliases... Unix's "everything is a file" became "everything is an item".

ElectricalUnion 3y ago

I think the only two "real" differences between throwing stuff in a folder and the registry is that: * a uncorrupted registry hive is supposed to be Directed Acyclic Graph, (while a modern filesystem can have arbitrary cycles with symlinks and bind mounts and junctions) and; * the registry has more limited name length limits, even assuming Windows somewhat low filesystem name length limits.