Windows 7 Why the registry can't be changed

[Matt]

Could the registry be replaced? Sure, in software, pretty much any change is possible.
In practice though...If you were to replace the registry, you would end up with something that pretty much looks exactly like the registry.

Go take a look at all the programs on your hard disk that use the registry APIs in [consults wikipedia] in advapi32.dll. (There is a way to dump the APIs that a binary uses with link.exe; wish I could remember the command right now.)

Pretty much every executable file uses the registry, and expects keys to be in certain places in the registry. The APIs for getting/setting stuff in the registry are not going to go away for the next 10 years.

http://shippingseven.blogspot.com/2008/01/registry.html to Read More

Well, looks interesting to me. I would agree, this is part of why Windows cannot move quickly, because it has to be compatible with older versions of software, so they have to make it backward compatible.

 

[THFS]

yah
it will also be VERY hard for M$ to take away the registry, which they will have to do sooner or later

 

[Kyle]

I say screw old software, revamp, or remove the registry, and make the providers catch up.

 

[the_blue_master]

Why cant they just make a software based registry you know just maybe like a dll or addon extention for older files and programs to use it still leaves the backward compatibility but it doesnt bog the system down so much while looking for information

 

[Matt]

Well, they might be able to, but still it would probably cause compatibility problems. I think what they should do is use Hyper-V, or some virtualization.

 

[the_blue_master]

thats what i mean if they could just use something like that for backwards compatibility it would cut out a lot of the load time etc and as we all know drive access speed can mean everything when it comes to gaming it can be the difference between winning and losing.

 

[Kyle]

I think the registry should go on an internal hi-speed non-volatile RAM module.

 

[Matt]

Though that wouldn't fix the issue about that if you break one thing in the registry, you break everything. I guess what they could do is that if they remove the registry in Windows 7, also ship Hyper-V, Windows Vista, and Windows XP in the box, so that you can run Hyper-V + the old OS to run old apps.