Comments by "Scott Franco" (@scottfranco1962) on "Ask Leo!"
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@heyyou274 1. Because it conflates all program data into one place. This makes it more difficult to find and separate out. And there is little corresponding benefit to it.
2. Because if the registry gets destroyed, the system is dead. And windows used to destroy its own registry a lot. Admittedly it has got better at this.
3. Removing an application got way more difficult with the registry. Many or even most applications don't clean their registry entries when removed, and in fact some call this a "feature", because it supposedly maintains settings. This can cause interesting things like applications that have persistent problems because the registry entries don't go away, and have to be manually removed.
As a developer, I am a big advocate of "one tree, one application" methodology. That is, an application is contained in one tree under one directory entry, without change on installation. This means it is installed by simply copying the tree to disc, and can be removed by simply removing that tree. It does not use a complex installer process (such as flatpack or other). It does not spread itself all over the operating system. And all of its configuration files are contained in that tree. Eclipse is one such application, as are all of my applications.
Do I use the registry? In cases I am forced to. For example the path is in the registry, and I have to alter it. There are other examples. But I prefer to keep as much data outside the registry as possible.
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