HKEY_USERS vs HKEY_CURRENT_USER

[edbro]

Can somebody explain what is the difference between HKEY_USERS an HKEY_CURRENT_USER? I sometimes have problems auto installing regtweaks to User. Can Current User be used instead?

[schalti]

Can somebody explain what is the difference between HKEY_USERS an HKEY_CURRENT_USER? I sometimes have problems auto installing regtweaks to User. Can Current User be used instead?

HKEY_USERS contains a list of the HKEY_CURRENT_USER registry part of all users that have an account in the local SAM and have logged in at some point.

Additionally it contains .DEFAULT which is the Template for every new user that logs in and gets his profile created. However, .DEFAULT has lost a bit of its usefulness with Windows XP since many default settings, specially for the explorer, are taken from other sources now.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER is the user-specific registry part of the user that is currently logged in.

[Vann]

In general HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT in 2000 and especially XP references settings before any user logs in. For example, if you change the font size in HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT it doesn't apply to every user, but it will apply to the classic logon window.

Basically, every user has what is called a registry hive, stored in %ProfilesDir%\%Username%\ntuser.dat. This is where all their registry settings are stored. When a user logs on their registry hive gets loaded into HKEY_CURRENT_USER, and it is unloaded when the user logs out. Default user settings are stored in the Default User's registry hive, i.e., %DefaultUserDir%\ntuser.dat.

Like schalti said, HKEY_USERS references all the registry hives of users who have logged in at some point by using their SID. That's the {S-1238-123987132987-blahblah} stuff you see under there.

Registry tweaks applied to HKEY_CURRENT_USER will only affect the currently active profile. Most of the time this means the user that is currently logged in. However, during the installation process the Default User's hive is loaded into HKEY_CURRENT_USER, which is why during unattended setup you want to import user configuration stuff to HKEY_CURRENT_USER.

In XP regedit can now load and unload hives (you used to have to use regedit32). Also, there are command-line utilities installed by default in XP that were once part of the resource kit in 2k that allow you to mount, unmount, and search registry hives, like reg and regfind.

[edbro]

Thanks guys, I'm learning!

So, if I want my regtweaks to be universal, can I load them into Current_User during setup? From what I understood of what you said, this should load it as the Default User. Will all my subsequent user creations inherit these? I do not create a user automatically but prefer to do it manually during setup.

EDIT:

Never mind, I found the answer to my question over at unattended.msfn.org