Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003 Inside Out

Understanding the Registry Structure

The Registry is first a database. Like any other database, the Registry is designed for information storage and retrieval. Any Registry value entry can be identified by specifying the path to its location. For example, the path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\AllowMultipleTSSessions specifies a Registry value that can be used to enable or disable the use of offline files with Terminal Services.

Figure 14-1 shows this value in the Registry. Because of its hierarchical structure, the Registry appears to be organized much like a file system. In fact, its structure is often compared to that of a file system. However, this is a bit misleading because there is no actual folder/file ...