The MAIN function is DRM (to prevent software copying)
The Registry's main function is DRM.
Incorrect. The registry is a repository for the entire system configuration as well as most applications running on the system. DRM is but only one of thousands of uses for the registry.
A central settings repository is a good idea, but that isn't the real function that the Registry serves.
Before the Registry:
- Programs had ini and dat files which held that information (similar to Linux config files).
- You could simply copy a program folder to another HDD/partition (or PC) and use it.
The MAIN purpose of the Registry is to prevent that.
Therefore the MAIN function is DRM (to prevent software copying).
If it is simply a settings repository, why can't you move a program to a new location on the machine (e.g. different partition)?
You can't do it,
because it is specifically designed to prevent that.
If it is supposed to hold vital settings information, why is it so fragile (i.e. prone to corruption)?
The answer is that a corrupted Registry still serves its MAIN function,
preventing software from being copied.
All the other so-called features were tacked on afterthoughts (to try and disguise its true purpose).
Example
In XP, the Registry remembered folder settings.
The number of folder settings it could remember
was less than the number of folders in the basic OS!
Linux has system-wide settings and libraries and it uses text config files to do it.
I suppose that it could be argued that "/etc" is equivalent to the Windows Registry.
The registry existed in Windows systems long before there was any such thing as "DRM".
Incorrect.
Simple DRM existed in early 1980's MS-DOS PC games (long before Windows).
The author seems to have a valid point about the Registry and the AppData folder IMO. I too hate the idea of programs scattering their components on different parts of the machine like the Registry and AppData, leaving behind a lot of garbage when uninstalled which is said to cause performance degradation over time
A number of the Desktop applications I use are portable so they don't touch the Registry as much. I like people who make portable software packages.
Before the Registry,
all programs were portable.