Config Subtree in Hkey_Local_Machine

The Hkey_Local_Machine\Config subtree contains information about alternate hardware configurations for the computer. For example, it can contain information about multiple configurations to be used when the computer is connected to a network, when it is undocked from a docking station, and so on. Each alternate configuration is assigned a unique identifier, and this configuration ID has a subkey under the Config key. Each configuration appears in the list of hardware profiles in the System option in Control Panel.

When Windows 95 checks the hardware configuration at system startup, one of three things occurs:

• In most situations, the configuration ID is mapped to a unique configuration and Windows 95 selects the appropriate one automatically, and the settings for the related Config subkey are used for system configuration.
• If the user is starting the computer for the first time with new hardware components, Windows 95 creates a new configuration for the new configuration ID, and a new Config subkey is added to the Registry.
• If the configuration ID is mapped to more than one configuration (for example, because Windows 95 cannot distinguish between two configurations), the user is prompted to choose which configuration to use.