Summary
The Registry is used more often by developers than any other part of the Windows XP operating systemprimarily because all the system and user attributes are stored there. When Microsoft abandoned the .INI file approach for the Registry, the opportunities for having multiuser and multisession applications opened up. The result is that more developers rely on it than ever before. That's actually good news for many system administrators and experienced users who need to redefine locations for their applications to save disk space or to redefine file associations quickly. Those are just two of many different tasks that experienced users can undertake to both speed the efficiency of their systems and help others. Just be sure to back up the Registry before you work on it.