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HKEY_CURRENT_USER vs HKEY_USERS

Updated: 21 May 2010 | 1 comment
Superfreak3's picture
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Hi all,

In my absence, our install was modified - all registry entries under HKCU were moved to HKU.  Does anyone see a problem with this?

I don't know why it was done, but everything was moved under HKU\.Default.  I thought this was hit when a new user was added.  I'm wondering if by placing the values under HKU\.Default, they will be available when an existing user installs and uses the product.

Any info on this would be more than GREATLY appreciated!

Thanks Much!!

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EdT's picture
17
Nov
2009
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Whoever did this needs training

Whoever did this is under the mistaken impression that by putting these registry keys into the .Default hive under HKU, it will be "inherited" by each new user on that machine. This is INCORRECT.
The .Default hive under HKU refers to the account that has desktop control when no one is logged in.
In order to install registry entries into the default user account that is used as the template for each new user logging on to the machine for the first time, where no roaming profiles are used, you need to load the NTUSER.DAT registry hive from the Default user profile under Documents and Settings (for XP).

So this change has zero effect on new user accounts. Presumably, the application recreates the HKCU entries if they are missing, otherwise the change could have broken this application install.

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