Registry Question

Is it possible to hack the registry out of Windows? Even just for proof of concept?

Wonder what would happen. Even if we couldn't, I wonder what it would be like in theory.

If you found a way to modify code that wasn't open source, then sure.

What do you mean "hack it out"? Remove it from Windows, while still remaining functional?

A "registry" isn't, in and of itself, a bad thing

It's essentially a database of config options
and you can get some pretty big speed improvements from a database as opposed to parsing individual flat files

If something has in inherent hierarchy and structure, then you can optimise the speed of random accesses by bunging the whole lot into a tree structure

Gnome does this with it's gconf

Where Gnome wins out, is that it's database is XML based
Windows uses Jet for it's registry (the same abysmal DB engine that powers MS Access.....)

But more importantly, Gconf only deals with gnome stuff (app agnostic)
The Windows registry tries to deal with everything

This type of organisation is brilliant for static structures
(the tree stays the same, it's just the values that change)
but a poor design for non-static structures, where the tree is changing

When a Windows app is installed, it changes the tree structure (adds it's own branches
When the app is uninstalled, it deletes the values but leaves the empty branches behind

Having lots of empty branches just slows down searches

The ideal solution is to have static structures in a tree, and dynamic stuff in flat files
(maybe showing my bias here, but this is exactly what Gnome does)

A central database (registry) of stuff is great for certain things
crap for others

Windows bungs everything in a database, and over time it clogs up with cruft

Okay, I get it.

But if we did find a way to take it out of the system, what would it be like?

Removing the registry from an OS that is built on the concept that it has a registry, is kinda like removing the liver from your body. Unless you can actually hack the OS/your body to work without the registry/liver, things will go down pretty fast (read: won't work at all)

Plus, 3rd party programs wouldn't work, becuase they rely on the registry.

I'm assuming program support is a big reason Microsoft can't remove the registry in later Windows.

It's quite possible to virtualise the registry. Several programs are capable of allowing it to be done, and I think Microsoft's backwards compatability allows it these days, though I could be mistaken.