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Best Practice Ezine #107 - The Windows registry has a future |
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A free desktop tool that monitors, or restarts, your VMware virtual machines. Download your free VM Console Best Practice Ezine #107 - The Windows registry has a futureI do like to use and to recommend technologies that have a future. Thus my first question when I installed Vista was, 'Does it still use Regedit?'. Then answer was, 'Yes, the registry is bigger and more color coordinated than ever'. Next, I was curious to see if my old AutoAdminLogon =1 setting would work in Vista. Again the answer was yes, it logs me on automatically, just as it does in XP and Windows Server 2003. As ever, to get AutoAdminLogon to work, you need Regedit to set the DefaultUserName and expose the DefaultPassword. The advantage of such a configuration is that it saves time, because you don't have to type the password every time the machine reboots, which is useful when testing. However, even Gung-ho Guy agrees that bypassing logon security is unacceptable on a production machine. See more about configuring AutoAdminLogon Returning to my original question of future proof applications, Vista not only uses Regedit, it extends its capabilities by adding new settings in extra folders / 'hives' / sections to the registry. See more about Windows 8 Registry. A true story of what happens when Guy was on a bad roll.Once I had installed Vista, my first job for Regedit was to disable the UAC. (That nagging User Accounts Security Menu). The situation was that in Beta 1 and Beta 2 I was able to configure ConsentPromptBehavior successfully. However, in Vista RC 1 Guy could not get it to work. I asked for help, and Craig kindly explained the excellent Local Security Policy method for disabling the UAC. Nevertheless, the thought lingered that I OUGHT to be able to control the UAC via the registry. Consequently I applied my trusted Windiff technique. Attention to detail revealed that the value changes from zero --> 2. In previous versions I swear it was zero -->1. No matter, I learnt about Local Security Policy and honed my Windiff skills. During my Windiff / Local Security Policy experiment, the Vista RC1 virtual machine crashed. The virtual machine was beyond recovery, fortunately I save these machines in various stages and thus I soon reverted to a recent version. My (erroneous) conclusion was that having regedit and Local Security Policy open at the same time caused the crash. Fortunately, the scientist in me surfaced and I repeated the experiment, only this time the Vista machine stubbornly refused to crash, thus I concluded that the original crash had nothing to do with Regedit or Local Policies. It was just coincidence, one for my very large book of unrepeatable experiments. The reason that I relay this account is to give you an insight into the agony and the ecstasy of beta testing. Lack of documentation added to the inherent instability of beta software made me twitchy and induced false conclusions. The happy ending is that I learnt a great deal about ConsentPromptBehavior, the registry and Local Policies. Finally, this saga reminded me of the frustrations of getting on a bad roll. Indeed, the whole incident reinforces the importance of getting on a good roll, how a tiny success gives me the 'feel good' factor. Three successes in a row and I believe that I can walk on water and solve any problem. May you have nothing but success with your next project. Guy Recommends: Tools4ever's UMRA
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