There are a lot of good motivations for the registry: trivial per-user settings, random access, remote configuration, etc. People using ini files in the bad-old 16-bit days needed to be broken of bad habits also - they either put app configuration data in win.ini (the windows ini file) or they put a private ini file in the windows directory itself. The latter is a problem for admins who want to lock down their systems and write-protect windows directory from every random joe that comes along.

The registry is easy to abuse however. It''s not meant for storing large amounts of data (use a pointer to a file instead). A lot of apps put stuff all over the place instead of keeping things tidy. A lot of apps require stuff to be initialized in the registry to even run instead of using it for non-default settings only.

It''s just a tool and has its upsides and downsides like any other. Use it or not as you please.

-Mike