How Windows 95 Components Use the Registry

With Windows 95, the operating system stores and checks the configuration information in the Registry for most configuration settings during system startup. The following figure provides an overview of how various Windows 95 components and applications use the Registry.

• Whenever you run Windows 95 Setup, use the Add New Hardware option in Control Panel, or run other setup programs for hardware, the Windows 95 Configuration Manager places hardware configuration data in the Registry. This information includes a list of hardware detected in the computer.

• When you install Windows 95 in the same directory as an earlier version of Windows, your previous desktop settings are moved from INI files to the Registry. When you make changes to the desktop configuration, the settings are added to the Registry.
• Each time you add or remove a Plug and Play-compliant device on a computer running Windows 95, configuration data is added to the Registry. For example, new information is added when you install a PCMCIA modem.

• Device drivers send and receive load parameters and configuration data from the Registry. This data is similar to settings defined under MS-DOS by device= lines in CONFIG.SYS.
• System policies, user profiles, and administrative tools such as the Windows 95 Control Panel can be used to add or modify configuration data. Registry Editor can be used to view and occasionally change the system configuration.

A set of Registry APIs can make information available through remote procedure calls (RPC) to Windows 95 management tools from other vendors. This permits administrators to view and modify configuration information remotely for hardware and software components that store information in the Registry. Notice that the Registry APIs are accessible remotely using named pipes (client-side only), NetBIOS over NetBEUI, Windows Sockets on IPX, and Windows Sockets on IP.