Surprising Registry Anomaly?

I am surprised at something that has happened in a new system I am
building.

I installed XP PRO with one user with administrator privileges. It
works fine. Then I manually patched the registry to eliminate
'balloons', and that worked fine too.

Then I added two more users, also with administrator privs. Now I
notice that the balloon patch I had made was not extended to the new
users. I am surprised by this.

Certainly each user doesn't have his own registry, or does he?
Can someone make a comment on this?

Thanks

Jethro

"Jethro" <wilson@somewhere.org> wrote in message
news:u3trg3p98vc4kl2dk7dvpmfnk1bsmao87m@4ax.com...
>I am surprised at something that has happened in a new system I am
> building.
>
> I installed XP PRO with one user with administrator privileges. It
> works fine. Then I manually patched the registry to eliminate
> 'balloons', and that worked fine too.
>
> Then I added two more users, also with administrator privs. Now I
> notice that the balloon patch I had made was not extended to the new
> users. I am surprised by this.
>
> Certainly each user doesn't have his own registry, or does he?
> Can someone make a comment on this?
>
Each User can have his/her own settings.
User accounts can be configured to a Users preference.

"Jethro" <wilson@somewhere.org> wrote in message
news:u3trg3p98vc4kl2dk7dvpmfnk1bsmao87m@4ax.com...
>I am surprised at something that has happened in a new system I am
> building.
>
> I installed XP PRO with one user with administrator privileges. It
> works fine. Then I manually patched the registry to eliminate
> 'balloons', and that worked fine too.
>
> Then I added two more users, also with administrator privs. Now I
> notice that the balloon patch I had made was not extended to the new
> users. I am surprised by this.

When you look in the registry at the balloon patch, are the entries in the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE or in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER area? If in the USER area,
then this is specific to each user, so not a surprise. If in the local
machine area then creating a user account must reset certain registry
entries. Either way, its not a surprise!

On Thu, 11 Oct 2007 11:31:59 +0100, "GT"
<ContactGT_remove_@hotmail.com> wrote:

>"Jethro" <wilson@somewhere.org> wrote in message
>news:u3trg3p98vc4kl2dk7dvpmfnk1bsmao87m@4ax.com.. .
>>I am surprised at something that has happened in a new system I am
>> building.
>>
>> I installed XP PRO with one user with administrator privileges. It
>> works fine. Then I manually patched the registry to eliminate
>> 'balloons', and that worked fine too.
>>
>> Then I added two more users, also with administrator privs. Now I
>> notice that the balloon patch I had made was not extended to the new
>> users. I am surprised by this.
>
>When you look in the registry at the balloon patch, are the entries in the
>HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE or in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER area? If in the USER area,
>then this is specific to each user, so not a surprise. If in the local
>machine area then creating a user account must reset certain registry
>entries. Either way, its not a surprise!
>

Thanks

I never expected it. Your explanation clarified things.

Jethro

"Jethro" wrote in message
news:u3trg3p98vc4kl2dk7dvpmfnk1bsmao87m@4ax.com...
> I am surprised at something that has happened in a new system I am
> building.
>
> I installed XP PRO with one user with administrator privileges. It
> works fine. Then I manually patched the registry to eliminate
> 'balloons', and that worked fine too.
>
> Then I added two more users, also with administrator privs. Now I
> notice that the balloon patch I had made was not extended to the new
> users. I am surprised by this.
>
> Certainly each user doesn't have his own registry, or does he?
> Can someone make a comment on this?


Changes under the HKCU registry hive is just for, well, what it says:
CURRENT USER! Changes under that pseudo-hive come from HKEY_USERS.
If all users had the same exact settings, why would separate user
accounts exist? If you changed your Start menu items and groupings
therein, or if you changed your desktop background or resolution, or
if you customized other Windows settings, would you appreciate if
another user made different selections and then you got stuck with
those along with battling with other users as to what they would all
agree to use?

Look under your own account's %userprofile% path. See the ntuser.dat
file? That is YOUR registry settings for YOUR account and no one
else's.

On Fri, 12 Oct 2007 11:45:26 -0500, "VanguardLH"
<VanguardLH@mail.invalid> wrote:

>"Jethro" wrote in message
>news:u3trg3p98vc4kl2dk7dvpmfnk1bsmao87m@4ax.com.. .
>> I am surprised at something that has happened in a new system I am
>> building.
>>
>> I installed XP PRO with one user with administrator privileges. It
>> works fine. Then I manually patched the registry to eliminate
>> 'balloons', and that worked fine too.
>>
>> Then I added two more users, also with administrator privs. Now I
>> notice that the balloon patch I had made was not extended to the new
>> users. I am surprised by this.
>>
>> Certainly each user doesn't have his own registry, or does he?
>> Can someone make a comment on this?
>
>
>Changes under the HKCU registry hive is just for, well, what it says:
>CURRENT USER! Changes under that pseudo-hive come from HKEY_USERS.
>If all users had the same exact settings, why would separate user
>accounts exist? If you changed your Start menu items and groupings
>therein, or if you changed your desktop background or resolution, or
>if you customized other Windows settings, would you appreciate if
>another user made different selections and then you got stuck with
>those along with battling with other users as to what they would all
>agree to use?
>
>Look under your own account's %userprofile% path. See the ntuser.dat
>file? That is YOUR registry settings for YOUR account and no one
>else's.


You're right of course. Thanks.