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The Registry is a key component of the NT operating system. It stores and controls the access of information used to initialize and configure NT applications. All components built for the NT platform make extensive use of the Registry and its features.
The Windows NT Registry Guide by Weiying Chen and Wayne Berry provides guidelines for accessing, maintaining, and utilizing the Registry. The first part of this book explains how to edit the Registry as well as how to write programs to modify it.
The second part of the book unveils the mysterious information stored in the Registry and how it affects application development. It covers the Registry's role in relation to several emerging technologies, including DCOM and ActiveX.
From the beginning, the Registry Guide is an advanced primer in the field of Registry scripting. Containing thorough descriptions and C++ examples of how to use each NT Registry API function, the documentation is straightforward, and the content is cut-and-dried. The Registry Guide reads similarly to Deitel & Deitel's C++ How to Program. The book commands a professional tone and assumes the user has prior coding experience in C++ and is familiar with the Registry.
As one would expect from a reference text of this sort, the book pays great attention to detail. In the section "Registry API Declarations in Visual Basic," the authors note the subtle differences between 16- and 32-bit Visual Basic. Noting that "16-bit Visual Basic uses the Pascal calling convention, while 32-bit Visual Basic uses the Stdcall calling convention," the book explains the differences in the pass-by-value, pass-by-reference pointer conventions.
While the authors are clearly experts in Registry scripting, most of this expertise is communicated through code fragments. Although the full source is available on the enclosed CD-ROM, the book itself is sometimes difficult to follow, especially if the user is unfamiliar with the Registry.
I would have appreciated more explanatory text to go along with the code. The skeleton code, however, is thoughtful and illustrates mostly universal functions that are easily integrated into more customized applications.
Building from the ground up, Chen and Berry start with examples of creating, defining, opening, and closing keys and quickly advance to more advanced C++ and Visual Basic code to manipulate and handle Registry entries in larger functions. The authors also include tips and examples for using the Registry API in Visual Basic and an explanation of how the Event Log and Performance Monitor make use of the Registry to produce output.
The Windows NT Registry Guide is a highly specialized programmer's guide to Registry scripting using C++ and bits of Visual Basic. For system administrators who wish to understand the inner workings of the Registry or programmers who want to code Registry scripts, The Windows NT Registry Guide is useful.
While there is no dearth of texts dealing with the NT Registry, Chen and Berry have created a solid book that, read by the right audience, is usable and informative.
-- Eugene Ahn