System information

The registry is divided in different hives, one for the system configuration
(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE) and one for the user profiles (HKEY_USERS). These
hives are hierarchically structured and every level can have values and/or one
or more sublevels assigned.
The Windows NT Registry Editor displays four hives by default:
•
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
•
HKEY_USERS
•
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT (subtree of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE)
•
HKEY_CURRENT_USER (subtree of HKEY_USERS)
Figure 85. Windows NT Registry Editor - Default View
If you select the registry of another computer through the network, only the main
hives (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and HKEY_USERS) will be displayed.
The HKEY_USERS tree contains all data related to a certain user. If a user is
logging in to a system for the first time, a copy of the default profile will be made
and a unique user ID assigned. If users make any changes to their environment,
the changes will be saved in this profile. In the HKEY_USERS tree, only the
default user and the user actually logged on to the managed system are
displayed. All other user profiles are hidden and not accessible.
If you change any values in this hive, it will only affect this certain user or, if you
make the changes in the default profile, all newly created users.
The HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE tree has five distinct subtrees:
Hardware Contains all hardware configuration data, device drivers, device
and resource maps.
SAM System internal key; can not be edited.
Security (Grayed out) System internal key; can not be edited.
Software Contains the information for object linking and embedding,
configuration data for applications, system services, the
Program Manager configuration and migration data.
62 Systems Management from an NT Server Point of View