Hive-based Registry Setup

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With the hive-based registry, you can preserve registry data without modifying the boot or shutdown process. The hive-based registry is available for use with any file system.

The first step in setting up the hive-based registry is to add the Hive-based Registry Catalog entry to your device configuration.

The largest setup task involves preparing the proper registry settings. These settings govern the device boot sequence. For information on the device boot sequence, see Hive-based Registry Startup Sequence.

Verify the following registry settings in the Platform.reg file.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\init\BootVars]
    "SystemHive"="<your system hive location>"
    "Start DevMgr"=dword:<your value>

SystemHive is the location and name of the system hive file. Do not include the name of the file system on which the file will be stored; the system will decide which file system to use based on other registry settings. Typically, this is a simple location such as "System.hv" or "Documents and Settings\System.hv".

Start DevMgr is a Boolean value indicating whether or not to start the Device Manager so it can start the drivers necessary to reach the registry hives. A value of 1 causes the Device Manager to start; 0 keeps the Device Manager from starting. The only case in which the Device Manager should not start is if you want to store the hives in the object store, which causes the hives to be lost on a cold boot. Typically, the hives are stored outside RAM, so it is necessary to start the Device Manager.

The value of DefaultUser, a REG_SZ value in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\init\BootVars, determines the default user hive to load. DefaultUser is set to the name of the user to use as the default profile when the system boots. If it is an existing user, the appropriate user hive is loaded. If it is a new user, the user profile is created.

OEMs can set the following registry value.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\init\BootVars]
    "DefaultUser"="<username>"

For more information on how to log on other users, see User Profile Setup and User Profile Storage.

For more information on using the hive-based Registry, see Using the Hive-based Registry.

See Also

Hive-based Registry Startup Sequence | Hive-based Registry | Troubleshooting the Hive-based Registry | Persisting Data with the Hive-based Registry | Upgrading the Hive-based Registry

Last updated on Wednesday, April 13, 2005

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