documentation/registry.sgml

   1   <sect1 id="registry">
   2     <title>The Registry</title>
   3
   4       <para>
   5         written by Ove Kåven
   6       </para>
   7       <para>
   8       (Extracted from <filename>wine/documentation/registry</filename>)
   9       </para>
  10
  11     <para>
  12       After Win3.x, the registry became a fundamental part of Windows.
  13       It is the place where both Windows itself, and all
  14       Win95/98/NT/2000/whatever-compliant applications, store
  15       configuration and state data. While most sane system
  16       administrators (and Wine developers) curse badly at the twisted
  17       nature of the Windows registry, it is still necessary for Wine
  18       to support it somehow.
  19     </para>
  20
  21     <sect2>
  22       <title>Registry structure</title>
  23
  24       <para>
  25         The Windows registry is an elaborate tree structure, and not
  26         even most Windows programmers are fully aware of how the
  27         registry is laid out, with its different "hives" and numerous
  28         links between them; a full coverage is out of the scope of
  29         this document. But here are the basic registry keys you might
  30         need to know about for now.
  31       </para>
  32
  33
  34       <variablelist>
  35         <varlistentry>
  36           <term>HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE</term>
  37           <listitem>
  38             <para>
  39               This fundamental root key (in win9x, stored in the
  40               hidden file <filename>system.dat</filename>) contains
  41               everything pertaining to the current Windows
  42               installation.
  43             </para>
  44           </listitem>
  45         </varlistentry>
  46         <varlistentry>
  47           <term>HKEY_USERS</term>
  48           <listitem>
  49             <para>
  50               This fundamental root key (in win9x, stored in the
  51               hidden file <filename>user.dat</filename>) contains
  52               configuration data for every user of the installation.
  53             </para>
  54           </listitem>
  55         </varlistentry>
  56         <varlistentry>
  57           <term>HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT</term>
  58           <listitem>
  59             <para>
  60               This is a link to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes.
  61               It contains data describing things like file
  62               associations, OLE document handlers, and COM classes.
  63             </para>
  64           </listitem>
  65         </varlistentry>
  66         <varlistentry>
  67           <term>HKEY_CURRENT_USER</term>
  68           <listitem>
  69             <para>
  70               This is a link to HKEY_USERS\your_username, i.e., your
  71               personal configuration.
  72             </para>
  73           </listitem>
  74         </varlistentry>
  75       </variablelist>
  76     </sect2>
  77
  78     <sect2>
  79       <title>Using a Windows registry</title>
  80
  81       <para>
  82         If you point Wine at an existing MS Windows installation (by
  83         setting the appropriate directories in
  84         <filename>wine.conf</filename> or
  85         <filename>.winerc</filename>), then Wine is able to load
  86         registry data from it. However, Wine will not save anything to
  87         the real Windows registry, but rather to its own registry
  88         files (see below). Of course, if a particular registry value
  89         exists in both the Windows registry and in the Wine registry,
  90         then Wine will use the latter.
  91       </para>
  92       <para>
  93         Occasionally, Wine may have trouble loading the Windows
  94         registry. Usually, this is because the registry is
  95         inconsistent or damaged in some way. If that becomes a
  96         problem, you may want to download the
  97         <filename>regclean.exe</filename> from the MS website and use
  98         it to clean up the registry. Alternatively, you can always use
  99         <filename>regedit.exe</filename> to export the registry data
 100         you want into a text file, and then import it in Wine.
 101       </para>
 102     </sect2>
 103
 104     <sect2>
 105       <title>Wine registry data filesr</title>
 106
 107       <para>
 108         In the user's home directory, there is a subdirectory named
 109         <filename>.wine</filename>, where Wine will try to save its
 110         registry by default. It saves into four files, which are:
 111       </para>
 112
 113       <variablelist>
 114         <varlistentry>
 115           <term><filename>system.reg</filename></term>
 116           <listitem>
 117             <para>
 118               This file contains HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
 119             </para>
 120           </listitem>
 121         </varlistentry>
 122         <varlistentry>
 123           <term><filename>user.reg</filename></term>
 124           <listitem>
 125             <para>
 126               This file contains HKEY_CURRENT_USER.
 127             </para>
 128           </listitem>
 129         </varlistentry>
 130         <varlistentry>
 131           <term><filename>userdef.reg</filename></term>
 132           <listitem>
 133             <para>
 134               This file contains HKEY_USERS\.Default (i.e. the default
 135               user settings).
 136             </para>
 137           </listitem>
 138         </varlistentry>
 139         <varlistentry>
 140           <term><filename>wine.userreg</filename></term>
 141           <listitem>
 142             <para>
 143               Wine saves HKEY_USERS to this file (both current and
 144               default user), but does not load from it, unless
 145               <filename>userdef.reg</filename> is missing.
 146             </para>
 147           </listitem>
 148         </varlistentry>
 149       </variablelist>
 150       <para>
 151         All of these files are human-readable text files, so unlike
 152         Windows, you can actually use an ordinary text editor on them
 153         if you must.
 154       </para>
 155       <para>
 156         In addition to these files, Wine can also optionally load from
 157         global registry files residing in the same directory as the
 158         global <filename>wine.conf</filename> (i.e.
 159         <filename>/usr/local/etc</filename> if you compiled from
 160         source). These are:
 161       </para>
 162
 163       <variablelist>
 164         <varlistentry>
 165           <term><filename>wine.systemreg</filename></term>
 166           <listitem>
 167             <para>Contains HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.</para>
 168           </listitem>
 169         </varlistentry>
 170         <varlistentry>
 171           <term><filename>wine.userreg</filename></term>
 172           <listitem>
 173             <para>Contains HKEY_USERS.</para>
 174           </listitem>
 175         </varlistentry>
 176       </variablelist>
 177     </sect2>
 178
 179     <sect2>
 180       <title>System administration</title>
 181
 182       <para>
 183         With the above file structure, it is possible for a system
 184         administrator to configure the system so that a system Wine
 185         installation (and applications) can be shared by all the
 186         users, and still let the users all have their own personalized
 187         configuration. An administrator can, after having installed
 188         Wine and any Windows application software he wants the users
 189         to have access to, copy the resulting
 190         <filename>system.reg</filename> and
 191         <filename>wine.userreg</filename> over to the global registry
 192         files (which we assume will reside in
 193         <filename>/usr/local/etc</filename> here), with:
 194       </para>
 195       <screen>
 196 cd ~/.wine
 197 cp system.reg /usr/local/etc/wine.systemreg
 198 cp wine.userreg /usr/local/etc/wine.userreg
 199       </screen>
 200       <para>
 201         and perhaps even symlink these back to the administrator's
 202         account, to make it easier to install apps system-wide later:
 203       </para>
 204       <screen>
 205 ln -sf /usr/local/etc/wine.systemreg system.reg
 206 ln -sf /usr/local/etc/wine.userreg wine.userreg
 207       </screen>
 208       <para>
 209         Note that the <filename>tools/wineinstall</filename> script
 210         already does all of this for you, if you install Wine as root.
 211         If you then install Windows applications while logged in as
 212         root, all your users will automatically be able to use them.
 213         While the application setup will be taken from the global
 214         registry, the users' personalized configurations will be saved
 215         in their own home directories.
 216       </para>
 217       <para>
 218         But be careful with what you do with the administrator account
 219         - if you do copy or link the administrator's registry to the
 220         global registry, any user might be able to read the
 221         administrator's preferences, which might not be good if
 222         sensitive information (passwords, personal information, etc)
 223         is stored there. Only use the administrator account to install
 224         software, not for daily work; use an ordinary user account for
 225         that.
 226       </para>
 227     </sect2>
 228
 229     <sect2>
 230       <title>The default registry</title>
 231
 232       <para>
 233         A Windows registry contains many keys by default, and some of
 234         them are necessary for even installers to operate correctly.
 235         The keys that the Wine developers have found necessary to
 236         install applications are distributed in a file called
 237         <filename>winedefault.reg</filename>. It is automatically
 238         installed for you if you use the
 239         <filename>tools/wineinstall</filename> script, but if you want
 240         to install it manually, you can do so by using the
 241         <command>regapi</command> tool. You can find more information
 242         about this in the
 243         <filename>documentation/no-windows</filename> document in the
 244         Wine distribution.
 245       </para>
 246     </sect2>
 247
 248     <sect2>
 249       <title>The [registry] section</title>
 250
 251       <para>
 252         With the above information fresh in mind, let's look at the
 253         <filename>wine.conf</filename>/<filename>.winerc</filename>
 254         options for handling the registry.
 255       </para>
 256
 257       <variablelist>
 258         <varlistentry>
 259           <term>LoadGlobalRegistryFiles</term>
 260           <listitem>
 261             <para>
 262               Controls whether to try to load the global registry
 263               files, if they exist.
 264             </para>
 265           </listitem>
 266         </varlistentry>
 267         <varlistentry>
 268           <term>LoadHomeRegistryFiles</term>
 269           <listitem>
 270             <para>
 271               Controls whether to try to load the user's registry
 272               files (in the <filename>.wine</filename> subdirectory of
 273               the user's home directory).
 274             </para>
 275           </listitem>
 276         </varlistentry>
 277         <varlistentry>
 278           <term>LoadWindowsRegistryFiles</term>
 279           <listitem>
 280             <para>
 281               Controls whether Wine will attempt to load registry data
 282               from a real Windows registry in an existing MS Windows
 283               installation.
 284             </para>
 285           </listitem>
 286         </varlistentry>
 287         <varlistentry>
 288           <term>WritetoHomeRegistryFiles</term>
 289           <listitem>
 290             <para>
 291               Controls whether registry data will be written to the
 292               user's registry files. (Currently, there is no
 293               alternative, so if you turn this off, Wine cannot save
 294               the registry on disk at all; after you exit Wine, your
 295               changes will be lost.)
 296             </para>
 297           </listitem>
 298         </varlistentry>
 299         <varlistentry>
 300           <term>UseNewFormat</term>
 301           <listitem>
 302             <para>
 303               This option is obsolete. Wine now always use the new
 304               format; support for the old format was removed a while
 305               ago.
 306             </para>
 307           </listitem>
 308         </varlistentry>
 309         <varlistentry>
 310           <term>PeriodicSave</term>
 311           <listitem>
 312             <para>
 313               If this option is set to a nonzero value, it specifies
 314               that you want the registry to be saved to disk at the
 315               given interval. If it is not set, the registry will only
 316               be saved to disk when the wineserver terminates.
 317             </para>
 318           </listitem>
 319         </varlistentry>
 320         <varlistentry>
 321           <term>SaveOnlyUpdatedKeys</term>
 322           <listitem>
 323             <para>
 324               Controls whether the entire registry is saved to the
 325               user's registry files, or only subkeys the user have
 326               actually changed. Considering that the user's registry
 327               will override any global registry files and Windows
 328               registry files, it usually makes sense to only save
 329               user-modified subkeys; that way, changes to the rest of
 330               the global or Windows registries will still affect the
 331               user.
 332             </para>
 333           </listitem>
 334         </varlistentry>
 335       </variablelist>
 336     </sect2>
 337   </sect1>
 338
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