The Registry plays a critical role in how a networked user can access Windows 95 and Windows NT. It controls who has access to the system, how the process works, the automation of the logon process, and the connection to other systems on a network. The Registry also controls the interface, what it looks like, which icons are used, the fonts, the colors, the toolbars, the menus, and even the responsiveness of the windows. It even controls the applications, access to those applications, and how the applications will work.
The Registry is like the hand in a glove. Without the hand, the glove does have some definition, some form. Depending on the hand that is in the glove, however, it can be radically different. Not only will the Registry bring life to the system, but how you modify and customize the Registry is what brings art to the process. Your systems can be as radical or as conservative as you want them to be. Given time, our systems mirror our attitudes and outlooks on life.
Earlier chapters discussed the process of networking and how it requires the Registry for network access and security. You get to choose whether you will set up the system for a single user or for multiple users, and how much security you will have toward this local machine.
The choices regarding network access are covered in previous chapters, but they are similar to the challenge of access to a single machine. In Windows NT, for example, a logon is required. The logon can be to the network, or just to the local machine. In either case, a user name and password are required. The settings in the Registry are in hidden hives that cannot be accessed through the Registry, but access to the system is controlled by it.
In Windows 95, you have the choice of setting up your system so it requires a logon to access the system. Unfortunately, this safeguard is easily defeated because of virtually unpluggable holes in the Registry.
The Windows interface is what you see when you start Windows. It may be as simple as the default Explorer icons and menus, or as different as Program Manager in its new clothes. It can be as simple as the DOS prompt or as advanced as Norton NT Tools. Whatever the case, you use the interface to interact with the computer, and it is your responsibility to make it reflect, as much as possible, who you are and how you like to work.
You can do that by choosing all of the following:
Nearly all of the choices you make are in the Control Panel, with a few reserved exclusively for the Registry. Even when the choices are made in the Control Panel, they end up in the Registry. Some take effect immediately upon application, such as icon fonts in Explorer, and others require logoff and logon to activate. The icon fonts in Program Manager work that way. The greater complexity of the Registry allows greater customization than was possible with the .INI files.
Microsoft refers to the current level of interface as the "WIMP" interface, an acronym (of course!) that stands for Windows, Icons, Mouse, and Pointer. They are working on new options for the interface that will make it even easier, more secure, and faster. All of those, regardless of the nature of the interface, will also be controlled by the Registry. Though the current interface would have been possible, though difficult, using WIN.INI, voice activation wouldn't, and neither would some other systems that simply use hand movement without touching the screen. Voice activation, for example, is currently done with Windows 3.x by using its own .INI files (which are limited to 64KB each), limiting the scope and the integration of the operations. With a hierarchical database of extremely large capacity, voice activation could be integrated more fully into the operating system and security, have a broader vocabulary, and allow for more performance.
NOTE: NT 5.0 will be available in beta within a very short time. One of the most widely speculated portions of it has to do with the interface. The new interface is called "Active Desktop," where there is a seamless integration between the information on the local disk drives, the network drives, and the Internet. After all, do we really care where it is, as long as we can get to it? Well, actually, yes we do. It all comes down to a question of trust. Do I trust someone whom I have never met, someone who may have different goals, values and agendas, someone who can destroy with one keystroke all of my information? If we do not care if our sensitive data is out of our control, it means that the data is actually not very sensitive at all. When it comes to programs, I also care where they are, and I want them local as much as possible. Until data transfer rates get much faster than they are now, I have no desire to launch Excel across the Internet with my current telephone line connection. As for the look and feel, many remark as to the "dumbing down" of the interface. It will be very similar to a Web browser. The buttons across the top help us navigate the functions we need to use. The address space allows us to jump to any location, whether local, on our network, or across the Internet. It will also allow us to search all of our files from one location, regardless of the file's location. Will you like it? I can't say. Some of you will, some won't, and some will avoid the issue altogether.
Using applications in Windows is easier and faster than ever before. Basic functions haven't changed much, but the amount and scope of things we ask the computer to do would have crippled systems just a few years ago. The complexity of the applications has brought features that we only dreamt of in the past. Now our dreams are a little different. We not only want the power, but we want it to be extremely fast and reliable.
The sheer number of entries that new applications make in the Registry is staggering, and unfortunately, the law of averages quickly catches up, and we have more errors than we should. Even if the entries are correct on a basic system, how does the programmer know they will be right on a highly modified system? Many times, he or she has to assume, and an assumption that makes perfect sense in a cubicle in Redmond or San Jose or Boston may not work at all in the rest of the country, much less the rest of the world.
The problem, then, becomes not one of making assumptions and setting entries into the Registry, but one of the lack of documentation and distribution of those entries. You either need to make installation programs take twice as long because of the surveying required, or you need to have the ability to change the settings after the application is installed, or preferably both.
Without adequate documentation into the Registry changes an application makes, you can only hope to do the best you can.
Another challenge associated with the Registry and the installation and use of applications today is who gets to use the program after it is installed. If you install an application under a specific user, will others also get to use it? If you set it so everyone can use it, do you have the ability to restrict access to it if you need to?
There is still much that could be done to make user functions better. Fortunately, the Registry composition and design allow for the kind of changes that are necessary. The next five chapters discuss the Registry's role in the interface in significant detail. If you apply the information that is in them to your system, not only will it work better, but it will more closely reflect your personality as well.
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