I don’t know if anyone remembers what it used to be like when you installed a program on your computer. The steps were:
1. Unzip program into a folder
2. Start using program.

And from an old article in Network World:

First, where did the registry come from? Microsoft introduced it in Windows 95 to get away from INI file hell. Back in Windows 3.X days, system settings were stored in dozens of separate INI files, and figuring out which setting was stored where could be difficult. Thus it was that Microsoft, in its wisdom, invented something even more complicated: the registry.

I know it is churlish to ask…but what is wrong with editing an ASCII file to find out how a particular program works, or to change a parameter?

Anyway, I find it particularly irritating to have to create a new desktop profile (in effect…a whole new user registry) for the same person, on the same machine, if they are going to move that machine to a new domain.

And so it is this weekend. Given a rainy Saturday and an unexplained beeping on my old server, I decided that this really is the time to change to our new Windows 2003 Small Business Server. So, I’m running the “Files and Settings Transfer Wizard” on all four attached machines to see to it that as many files and settings are indeed transferred.

With all the hype about the successor version of Windows XP: Windows Vista, the Operation System You’ll Never Need, with Features You Never Asked For one hopes that some of the insane effort required to manage desktop machines in a networked setting will be addressed. Please Bill….we’re asking for it. A new toolbar and 3D views may be nice, but managing desktops and occasionally attached laptops should be Job 1.