documentation/registry.sgml

   1   <sect1 id="registry">
   2     <title>The Registry</title>
   3
   4     <para>
   5       After Win3.x, the registry became a fundamental part of Windows.
   6       It is the place where both Windows itself, and all
   7       Win95/98/NT/2000/XP/etc.-compliant applications, store
   8       configuration and state data. While most sane system
   9       administrators (and Wine developers) curse badly at the twisted
  10       nature of the Windows registry, it is still necessary for Wine
  11       to support it somehow.
  12     </para>
  13
  14     <sect2>
  15       <title>The default registry</title>
  16
  17       <para>
  18         A Windows registry contains many keys by default, and some of
  19         them are necessary for even installers to operate correctly.
  20         The keys that the Wine developers have found necessary to
  21         install applications are distributed in a file called
  22         <filename>wine.inf</filename>. It is automatically
  23         installed for you if you use the
  24         <filename>tools/wineinstall</filename> script in the Wine source,
  25         but if you want to install it manually, you can do so by using the
  26         <command>regedit</command> tool to be found in the
  27         <filename>programs/regedit/</filename>
  28         directory in Wine source.
  29         <filename>wine.inf</filename> is  applied even if
  30         you plan to use a native Windows registry, since Wine needs some
  31         specific registry settings in its registry (for special
  32         workarounds for certain programs etc.).
  33         This is done automatically by wine the first time you run it.
  34        </para>
  35     </sect2>
  36
  37     <sect2>
  38       <title>Using a Windows registry</title>
  39
  40       <para>
  41         If you point Wine at an existing Windows installation (by
  42         setting the appropriate directories in
  43         <filename>~/.wine/config</filename>, then Wine is able to load
  44         registry data from it. However, Wine will not save anything to
  45         the real Windows registry, but rather to its own registry
  46         files (see below). Of course, if a particular registry value
  47         exists in both the Windows registry and in the Wine registry,
  48         then Wine will use the latter. In the Wine config file, there
  49         are a number of configuration settings in the [registry] section
  50         (see below) specific to the handling of Windows registry content by Wine.
  51       </para>
  52     </sect2>
  53
  54       <sect2>
  55         <title>The Registry</title>
  56         <para>
  57           The initial default registry content to be used by the Wine
  58           registry files is in the file
  59           <filename>wine.inf</filename>. It contains directory
  60           paths, class IDs, and more; it must be installed before most
  61           <filename>INSTALL.EXE</filename> or
  62           <filename>SETUP.EXE</filename> applications will work.
  63         </para>
  64       </sect2>
  65
  66     <sect2>
  67       <title>Registry structure</title>
  68
  69       <para>
  70         The Windows registry is an elaborate tree structure, and not
  71         even most Windows programmers are fully aware of how the
  72         registry is laid out, with its different "hives" and numerous
  73         links between them; a full coverage is out of the scope of
  74         this document. But here are the basic registry keys you might
  75         need to know about for now.
  76       </para>
  77
  78
  79       <variablelist>
  80         <varlistentry>
  81           <term>HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE</term>
  82           <listitem>
  83             <para>
  84               This fundamental root key (in win9x it's stored in the
  85               hidden file <filename>system.dat</filename>) contains
  86               everything pertaining to the current Windows
  87               installation.
  88             </para>
  89           </listitem>
  90         </varlistentry>
  91         <varlistentry>
  92           <term>HKEY_USERS</term>
  93           <listitem>
  94             <para>
  95               This fundamental root key (in win9x it's stored in the
  96               hidden file <filename>user.dat</filename>) contains
  97               configuration data for every user of the installation.
  98             </para>
  99           </listitem>
 100         </varlistentry>
 101         <varlistentry>
 102           <term>HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT</term>
 103           <listitem>
 104             <para>
 105               This is a link to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes.
 106               It contains data describing things like file
 107               associations, OLE document handlers, and COM classes.
 108             </para>
 109           </listitem>
 110         </varlistentry>
 111         <varlistentry>
 112           <term>HKEY_CURRENT_USER</term>
 113           <listitem>
 114             <para>
 115               This is a link to HKEY_USERS\your_username, i.e., your
 116               personal configuration.
 117             </para>
 118           </listitem>
 119         </varlistentry>
 120       </variablelist>
 121     </sect2>
 122
 123     <sect2>
 124       <title>Wine registry data files</title>
 125
 126       <para>
 127         In the user's home directory, there is a subdirectory named
 128         <filename>.wine</filename>, where Wine will try to save its
 129         registry by default. It saves into four files, which are:
 130       </para>
 131
 132       <variablelist>
 133         <varlistentry>
 134           <term><filename>system.reg</filename></term>
 135           <listitem>
 136             <para>
 137               This file contains HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
 138             </para>
 139           </listitem>
 140         </varlistentry>
 141         <varlistentry>
 142           <term><filename>user.reg</filename></term>
 143           <listitem>
 144             <para>
 145               This file contains HKEY_CURRENT_USER.
 146             </para>
 147           </listitem>
 148         </varlistentry>
 149         <varlistentry>
 150           <term><filename>userdef.reg</filename></term>
 151           <listitem>
 152             <para>
 153               This file contains HKEY_USERS\.Default (i.e. the default
 154               user settings).
 155             </para>
 156           </listitem>
 157         </varlistentry>
 158         <varlistentry>
 159           <term><filename>wine.userreg</filename></term>
 160           <listitem>
 161             <para>
 162               Wine saves HKEY_USERS to this file (both current and
 163               default user), but does not load from it, unless
 164               <filename>userdef.reg</filename> is missing.
 165             </para>
 166           </listitem>
 167         </varlistentry>
 168       </variablelist>
 169       <para>
 170         All of these files are human-readable text files, so unlike
 171         Windows, you can actually use an ordinary text editor on them
 172         if you want (make sure you don't have Wine running when modifying
 173         them, otherwise your changes will be discarded).
 174       </para>
 175       <para>
 176         FIXME: global configuration currently not implemented.
 177
 178         In addition to these files, Wine can also optionally load from
 179         global registry files residing in the same directory as the
 180         global <filename>wine.conf</filename> (i.e.
 181         <filename>/usr/local/etc</filename> if you compiled from
 182         source). These are:
 183       </para>
 184
 185       <variablelist>
 186         <varlistentry>
 187           <term><filename>wine.systemreg</filename></term>
 188           <listitem>
 189             <para>
 190               Contains HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
 191             </para>
 192           </listitem>
 193         </varlistentry>
 194         <varlistentry>
 195           <term><filename>wine.userreg</filename></term>
 196           <listitem>
 197             <para>
 198               Contains HKEY_USERS.
 199             </para>
 200           </listitem>
 201         </varlistentry>
 202       </variablelist>
 203     </sect2>
 204
 205     <sect2>
 206       <title>System administration</title>
 207
 208       <para>
 209         With the above file structure, it is possible for a system
 210         administrator to configure the system so that a system Wine
 211         installation (and applications) can be shared by all the
 212         users, and still let the users all have their own personalized
 213         configuration. An administrator can, after having installed
 214         Wine and any Windows application software he wants the users
 215         to have access to, copy the resulting
 216         <filename>system.reg</filename> and
 217         <filename>user.reg</filename> over to the global registry
 218         files (which we assume will reside in
 219         <filename>/usr/local/etc</filename> here), with:
 220       </para>
 221   <screen>
 222   cd ~/.wine
 223   cp system.reg /usr/local/etc/wine.systemreg
 224   cp user.reg /usr/local/etc/wine.userreg
 225   </screen>
 226       <para>
 227         and perhaps even symlink these back to the administrator's
 228         account, to make it easier to install apps system-wide later:
 229       </para>
 230   <screen>
 231   ln -sf /usr/local/etc/wine.systemreg system.reg
 232   ln -sf /usr/local/etc/wine.userreg user.reg
 233   </screen>
 234       <para>
 235         Note that the <filename>tools/wineinstall</filename> script
 236         already does all of this for you, if you install Wine source as root.
 237         If you then install Windows applications while logged in as
 238         root, all your users will automatically be able to use them.
 239         While the application setup will be taken from the global
 240         registry, the users' personalized configurations will be saved
 241         in their own home directories.
 242       </para>
 243       <para>
 244         But be careful with what you do with the administrator account
 245         - if you do copy or link the administrator's registry to the
 246         global registry, any user might be able to read the
 247         administrator's preferences, which might not be good if
 248         sensitive information (passwords, personal information, etc)
 249         is stored there. Only use the administrator account to install
 250         software, not for daily work; use an ordinary user account for
 251         that.
 252       </para>
 253     </sect2>
 254
 255     <sect2>
 256       <title>The [registry] section</title>
 257
 258       <para>
 259         Now let's look at the <link linkend="config-file">Wine
 260         configuration file</link> options for handling the registry.
 261       </para>
 262
 263       <variablelist>
 264         <varlistentry>
 265           <term>GlobalRegistryDir</term>
 266           <listitem>
 267             <para>
 268               Optional.  Sets the path to look for the Global
 269               Registry.
 270             </para>
 271           </listitem>
 272         </varlistentry>
 273         <varlistentry>
 274           <term>LoadGlobalRegistryFiles</term>
 275           <listitem>
 276             <para>
 277               Controls whether to try to load the global registry
 278               files, if they exist.
 279             </para>
 280           </listitem>
 281         </varlistentry>
 282         <varlistentry>
 283           <term>LoadHomeRegistryFiles</term>
 284           <listitem>
 285             <para>
 286               Controls whether to try to load the user's registry
 287               files (in the <filename>.wine</filename> subdirectory of
 288               the user's home directory).
 289             </para>
 290           </listitem>
 291         </varlistentry>
 292         <varlistentry>
 293           <term>LoadWindowsRegistryFiles</term>
 294           <listitem>
 295             <para>
 296               Controls whether Wine will attempt to load registry data
 297               from a real Windows registry in an existing MS Windows
 298               installation.
 299             </para>
 300           </listitem>
 301         </varlistentry>
 302         <varlistentry>
 303           <term>WritetoHomeRegistryFiles</term>
 304           <listitem>
 305             <para>
 306               Controls whether registry data will be written to the
 307               user's registry files. (Currently, there is no
 308               alternative, so if you turn this off, Wine cannot save
 309               the registry on disk at all; after you exit Wine, your
 310               changes will be lost.)
 311             </para>
 312           </listitem>
 313         </varlistentry>
 314         <varlistentry>
 315           <term>SaveOnlyUpdatedKeys</term>
 316           <listitem>
 317             <para>
 318               Controls whether the entire registry is saved to the
 319               user's registry files, or only subkeys the user have
 320               actually changed. Considering that the user's registry
 321               will override any global registry files and Windows
 322               registry files, it usually makes sense to only save
 323               user-modified subkeys; that way, changes to the rest of
 324               the global or Windows registries will still affect the
 325               user.
 326             </para>
 327           </listitem>
 328         </varlistentry>
 329         <varlistentry>
 330           <term>PeriodicSave</term>
 331           <listitem>
 332             <para>
 333               If this option is set to a nonzero value, it specifies
 334               that you want the registry to be saved to disk at the
 335               given interval. If it is not set, the registry will only
 336               be saved to disk when the wineserver terminates.
 337             </para>
 338           </listitem>
 339         </varlistentry>
 340         <varlistentry>
 341           <term>UseNewFormat</term>
 342           <listitem>
 343             <para>
 344               This option is obsolete. Wine now always uses the new
 345               format; support for the old format was removed a while
 346               ago.
 347             </para>
 348           </listitem>
 349         </varlistentry>
 350       </variablelist>
 351     </sect2>
 352   </sect1>
 353
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