Chapter 5 :Registry : what and how

Chapter 5 : Registry : what and how

The Registry has to be one of the least understood aspects of the Windows operating system family. Even seasoned professionals approach it with a degree of caution, knowing that a wrong entry can potentially wreak havoc on the system. To understand the Registry is to get to the heart of controlling and modifying your Widows system. With a detailed understanding of what you are doing, you can turn your machine into a lean performance machine, customize and personalize its appearance, and get fine-grained control over nearly every aspect of how Widows XP behaves.

Some History

The Registry was introduced as a way out of the "INI files mess" that plagued early versions of Windows. Configuration information regarding the operating system, application files, hardware, and so on were stored in INI files scattered all over the system. For example, when an application is installed, it needs to know various parame­ters regarding the operating system and the available hardware. Much of this information is common to other applications as well. However, if there was any change in the hardware or operating sys­tem software, updating the application's INI files used to be hell.

The Registry was conceived as a way out of this madness. It is a hierarchical database that stores information regarding the hard­ware, operating system software, application software, users prefer­ences and system preferences. The hierarchy separates the machine information, user information and the software information into logically discrete units that can be manipulated with greater ease. Any changes made by users, the operating system, newly installed software, and hardware are all updated and reflected in the Registry.

During system startup, Windows uses the registry to get con­figuration data regarding the hardware, software and other peripherals that have been configured. It also maintains a backup copy of the registry with which the system had successfully start­ed up last. Hence, if it encounters a problem with the current startup, it can then use the configuration information from the backup to attempt to start the system. Some of the information stored in the registry is specific to the particular startup session only, and is mostly user-specific. When a user installs new soft­ware, Windows will either make the installation user-specific .or system-wide. In some software, the user is given the option to select whether the installation should or not be available to every­one else who uses the system. In other cases, the software will install itself system-wide and save user specific information sepa­rately, making entries in the registry that are both user-specific as well as system-wide.

For example, when you install Microsoft Office, the program is installed system-wide, but the user information is specific to the cur­rently logged-in user. Any preferences that are made are stored under the username in the registry. If another user logs in and starts Microsoft Office, the default preferences are initialised, and a new entry is created in the Registry under this username.

This flexibility has deeper significance when considering a net­worked scenario. Administrators can specify user rights and access to various system and network components. They can control what users can and cannot do on their machines with a fair degree of granular control. For example, Administrators can specify that users are not allowed to install new applications on their machines. A Registry entry disabling the users' right to install would secure the system. And a Registry entry can be made to prevent unauthorized access to the registry itself

However, the Registry has not done away entirely with the legacy of INI files, partially due to Microsoft's commitment to backward compatibility and partially because in some cases the Registry wouldn't be available-as in the case of the boot process, when the boot.ini file is used to get the initial startup information.

Critics of the Registry concept point to it ~ a "single point of fail­ure." If the Registry is damaged, XP will fail to start up, and in most cases will require a complete reinstall. It is for this reason that the Registry is hidden deep in the system, and any discussion on the tweaking the Registry is accompanied by dire warnings of disaster if one does anything wrong. Also, if an application doesn't uninstall correctly, it can leave traces in the registry, which over time will increase its size and affect performance.

Physically, the Registry information in' XP is stored in multiple files in the \System32\Config folder of the operating system (or root) folder-usually C:\ Windows or C:\ WINNT. These files cannot be edit­ed directly; they have to be accessed through a Registry-editing pro­gram such as Regedit.exe or Regedt32.exe.

Through the registry many problems / irritation can be resolved. as this is not for the learners and beginner. Any incorrect change in registry will bring crash of the operating system; the same is not published here. Any one who is well versed with computer may contact me at the mail address given above.

Chapter 5 :

Chapter 5 : Registry : what and how

The Registry has to be one of the least understood aspects of the Windows operating system family. Even seasoned professionals approach it with a degree of caution, knowing that a wrong entry can potentially wreak havoc on the system. To understand the Registry is to get to the heart of controlling and modifying your Widows system. With a detailed understanding of what you are doing, you can turn your machine into a lean performance machine, customize and personalize its appearance, and get fine-grained control over nearly every aspect of how Widows XP behaves.

Some History

The Registry was introduced as a way out of the "INI files mess" that plagued early versions of Windows. Configuration information regarding the operating system, application files, hardware, and so on were stored in INI files scattered all over the system. For example, when an application is installed, it needs to know various parame­ters regarding the operating system and the available hardware. Much of this information is common to other applications as well. However, if there was any change in the hardware or operating sys­tem software, updating the application's INI files used to be hell.

The Registry was conceived as a way out of this madness. It is a hierarchical database that stores information regarding the hard­ware, operating system software, application software, users prefer­ences and system preferences. The hierarchy separates the machine information, user information and the software information into logically discrete units that can be manipulated with greater ease. Any changes made by users, the operating system, newly installed software, and hardware are all updated and reflected in the Registry.

During system startup, Windows uses the registry to get con­figuration data regarding the hardware, software and other peripherals that have been configured. It also maintains a backup copy of the registry with which the system had successfully start­ed up last. Hence, if it encounters a problem with the current startup, it can then use the configuration information from the backup to attempt to start the system. Some of the information stored in the registry is specific to the particular startup session only, and is mostly user-specific. When a user installs new soft­ware, Windows will either make the installation user-specific .or system-wide. In some software, the user is given the option to select whether the installation should or not be available to every­one else who uses the system. In other cases, the software will install itself system-wide and save user specific information sepa­rately, making entries in the registry that are both user-specific as well as system-wide.

For example, when you install Microsoft Office, the program is installed system-wide, but the user information is specific to the cur­rently logged-in user. Any preferences that are made are stored under the username in the registry. If another user logs in and starts Microsoft Office, the default preferences are initialised, and a new entry is created in the Registry under this username.

This flexibility has deeper significance when considering a net­worked scenario. Administrators can specify user rights and access to various system and network components. They can control what users can and cannot do on their machines with a fair degree of granular control. For example, Administrators can specify that users are not allowed to install new applications on their machines. A Registry entry disabling the users' right to install would secure the system. And a Registry entry can be made to prevent unauthorized access to the registry itself

However, the Registry has not done away entirely with the legacy of INI files, partially due to Microsoft's commitment to backward compatibility and partially because in some cases the Registry wouldn't be available-as in the case of the boot process, when the boot.ini file is used to get the initial startup information.

Critics of the Registry concept point to it ~ a "single point of fail­ure." If the Registry is damaged, XP will fail to start up, and in most cases will require a complete reinstall. It is for this reason that the Registry is hidden deep in the system, and any discussion on the tweaking the Registry is accompanied by dire warnings of disaster if one does anything wrong. Also, if an application doesn't uninstall correctly, it can leave traces in the registry, which over time will increase its size and affect performance.

Physically, the Registry information in' XP is stored in multiple files in the \System32\Config folder of the operating system (or root) folder-usually C:\ Windows or C:\ WINNT. These files cannot be edit­ed directly; they have to be accessed through a Registry-editing pro­gram such as Regedit.exe or Regedt32.exe.

Through the registry many problems / irritation can be resolved. as this is not for the learners and beginner. Any incorrect change in registry will bring crash of the operating system; the same is not published here. Any one who is well versed with computer may contact me at the mail address given above.

Chapter 6 Internet.

Chapter 6 Internet.

We all know what the internet is. The internet provides the plat form to interact with each other as well as sharing the information of any kind. The various companies launch various sites and provide various tools the way we can interact. The Big guns in the sites are Google , Yahoo, Face book , Orkut , Blogs, twitter, etc.. are in public domain and want the public to use its services. Each one is providing different services on the net. For the different purposes these services can be utilize. These sites are social networking sites.

As you all know that finance of the back bone of the ay company, that applies to these big guns also, They earns from the advertise they put on their sites.

On the internet the banks and other institutes like rail and air travelling companies also has their sites meant for the purposes of maintaining the account of the customers and booking the tickets etc..

There are also adult sites. ( I beg to mention this here for the purpose that the more than 60% of the traffic on internet are for these adult sites. The experiences show that the adult sites sell the adult materials and does not depends on the advertisement like other social sites. So, while surfing these adult sites, be ready to empty your credits card.!!!. Rather it is advise to keep away from these adult sites, whatever they offer the free pass / free entry, ultimately they asks for the details of the credit cards, in the name to verify your age, So, do not go in to it. The CD in the market will do the purpose.)

Chapter 7 Note on Groups.

Chapter 7 Note on Groups. Handy guide. (Groups on the internet) Concept of the groups:

We are the people involving ourselves in various activities. Social, economic, religion etc.. We are often communicating (personal talk, through pone, internet, etc..) with all these groups. i.e. social, official, professional, religion etc.

Generally one person can be a member of many groups. By birth one become the member of particular religion and even sub-religion. By profession one choose to be a member of trade association, institutions etc.. By employment one becomes a member of the union. By academic qualification one becomes the part of schools / college’s group (alumni). Personal friends circle, social relations etc are another example of the groups in which one is the member interacts. One also choose to be the member of one or another CLUB (karnavati,Rajpath any other) . Each group for the benefit of the groups publishes periodicals, arrange seminars, lunch/dinner, competition, sports activity, drama, etc..

On the INTERNET

Similarly on the internet many websites provide the facility of creating E-groups. The Yahoo and Google are more popular. The important thing to mention that on these sites becoming member is free. One has not to pay anything for the same.

Being the member of the particular group you will receives (as chosen by you) all the various mails posted by any other member to that group. It is like general talk by three or more persons in small gathering during recess, lunch hours. One person makes the query another is replying, third one is counter argued. Forth one may say he has circular / notification / case law / or any other facts. This is happened in small gatherings, where in the group the same is happened on inter-net.

But do not think that this is the gossip. Each and every group has its own subject matter. The members on these groups discussed the mattere related to that subject, sharing views, experience with each other. There are more than 100000 (yes lacs) groups on the yahoo and the google. For the various subject from A to Z category. Following is the gist from the google group page.

Topic _ _ _ _ _ (87) Arts and Entertainment (497) Home (91) Other (737) People (346) Recreation (860) Science and Technology (267) Society (731)

Region Asia (349) Canada (23) Caribbean (58) Central America (58) Europe (1915) Latin America (151) Mediterranean (8) Middle East (23) United States (154)

Language English (5354) Esperanto (4) Estonian (6) Finnish (82) French (428) Galician (3) German (450) Greek (5) Hebrew (12) Hindi (2) Hungarian (37)

Indonesian (53) Italian (620) Japanese (34) Malay (3) Norwegian - Norwegian (Bokmål) (20) Persian (8) Polish (284) Serbian (8) Slovenian (16)

Activity High (1303) Medium (2250) Low (6438) Members 1000+ (378) 100+ (1098) 10-100 (3029) <10 (66) Browse all of Usenet...

Groups 1-15 of about 100002.

There are also a number of groups in yahoo also.

You can see from the above that there are many groups in various subjects.

The basic intention of this article is to introduce the “groups’” concept to you as well as to invite you to become a member of the groups created for the Income tax people. (Assessing Officer as well as CA, ITP, Advocates ect) . Where, one can discuss any issue without hesitance. One’s query is addressed to every body in the groups. The authentic answer may be derived.

For example if the member

- Requires any other proforma (say form 57), Just post your query in the group, any other member who has from 57 will reply with the copy of the from 57.

- If one is confused that, he knows that there were some case law for particular issue, just post your query to groups, any other member ( Most probably the Assessing Officer even CA,ITP) has answer will let you know the case law. It may happened that some one know that there is change in ACT / Rule, and issue will be tackled differently.

- Hence one can be in touch with other person, without personally meeting / phoning or otherwise.

So, All the members of the Income Tax Department family are requested to be a member of the aaykarbhavan group. Where we can discuss all the issues related to income tax (Law / Rules / service matters / administrative matter) across the INDIA (even abroad, if some one gone out of India). The main benefit of this group is that income tax persons will discuses the issues related to income tax. You may discuses the matter even without disclosing your identity.

If you speak to one or few officer, the solution of your urgent query may not be properly replied. But in the group your issue will be addressed to all the members not to one or few. Your voice is been heard by all, and responded well. (As on 01.01.2007 there are 1300+ members of this group & increasing day by day.).

To become a member (free) type the following text in the address bar of the internet explorer.

http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/itgoa/

Then press enter, this will opens the groups’ web page. To join the group just clicks on the “join this group”. Enter verification code in appropriate box and press “Join” again. Now you become the member of the group and you will now receive / send the messages.

[Please note that these features are for Yahoo members. NON-yahoo members may send the blank message to following mail address to become the member of the aaykarbhavan group. In this case you will receive all the messages posted in the group as well as you can make a query to the group members.] v

* itgoa-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Another interesting group where the online library of ITRs are available. The web address is as under ;

http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/It_law_reported/

For non-yahoo member send blank message to * It_law_reported-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

v [NOTE non-yahoo member who send message to the group for membership, do not forget to reply the confirmation reply from your mail, after sending blank message to the group]

Some Google groups : The web address is as under;

uhttp://groups.google.com/group/aaykarbhavan [This is replica of the yahoo’s aaykarbhavan group. ]

vhttp://groups.google.com/group/fun-finder [Another good group on google where you can find good mails including humor, SMSes, Quotes, inspirational messages, good photos, etc. ]

IN CONCLUSION

Groups are communities created by and for people with similar ideas and tastes, and for sharing information and resources without any boundary. Posting messages, searching, customizing group pages and browsing groups are easy both in google and Yahoo Pages.

Something more about Groups :

Groups is a free service for communicating, discussing -and sharing ideas through e-mail or at the Web site. You can cre­ate, manage, and browse groups to seek or give opinions, advice, resources, or information. Like several other group sites on the Web, it has all the basic features-search for topics of your inter­est, or browse for information posted on the groups.

Google Groups was Deja News before it was bought by Google in 2001. Deja News was popular for maintaining archives of Use net newsgroups. The Usenet archives, containing a billion posts on content dating back to 1981, are accessible to members of Google Groups. On December 2, 2004, Google launched Groups Beta, with a new look and improvements over the earli­er Groups. The new beta enables mailing lists and public dis­cussions. You can bookmark topics that interest you and receive replies on starred topics on your group page.

Discussion groups can be moderated or non-moderated, depending upon the options chosen by the group owner. To post replies to discussions or topics in a group, you need to join it first. You can also bookmark topics under "My Topics".