Re: Ini File vs Registry
"Daniel James" <wastebasket@nospam.aaisp.org> wrote in message
news:VA.00001520.2dfca2ec@nospam.aaisp.org...
The point I was trying to make is that while the registry is a good,
centralized, place to store information relevant to system
configuration it's not so clear that it's a good -- or even a sensible
-- place for an application to store configuration that is not required
to be held centrally.
Yes, I agree. The registry is a good place to store app data only to the
extent that the app data can be considered part of the system, just like
which display adapter you are using is part of the system. In the old days,
the app was just as much a part of the system as the display adapter. But
no longer.
That's a good question. What the U3 scheme does is to store the data on
the U3 Flash drive but to make it appear to be part of the registry ...
which means that the U3 drivers have to (somehow) hook into the
Registry and arrange for the data on the drive to be presented as
though it were in the Registry when it isn't ... I don't know the
details but you can get them from www.u3.com if you register and accept
their NDA ...
I signed up to be a U3 developer about 3 years ago but never did anything
with it. My understanding is that U3 does not do any registry
virtualization; it is a criteria of any U3 app that it not store any data in
the registry. I think U3 does add some environment variables, and that is
enough. BTW, I don't think U3 exists anymore. Microsoft + SanDisk
announced last year that they would be partnering to create the same thing
in Windows itself, and as a result, U3 was no more. But I haven't heard any
more about this, I'm not sure it is going forward.
Given that the registry exists and that applications do use it I think
virtualization of the Registry is quite a good solution ... Certainly,
if you have a U3 stick that contains a COM component and you want
applications on the hard drive to be able to use that component while
the U3 stick is connected you don't have much choice.
It clearly requires a good deal of work and a few (possibly dirty)
tricks to get it to work, though, and getting an app to run from a
flash drive is a lot simpler (i.e. doesn't require U3) if the app
doesn't use the registry at all.
Yes, there are a few companies out there that do "application
virtualization" that do virtualize the registry. Thinstall, Mojopac, Moka5,
etc. All involve rather low level and undocumented, and most certainly,
unsupported, tricks to do their magic. Even MS's SoftGrid app
virtualization relies on these kind of things. I wish they would hurry up
and get off their butt to release a native Windows application
virtualization host. That would be great. You could walk up to any Windows
machine, stick in your USB flash drive, and instantly get your virual
environment stored on there hosted onto Windows without any tricks with
inevitable compatibility problems (not to mention non-Admin support).
-- David