Windows Registry pros and cons

Raymond Chen recently commented on why .ini files were deprecated in favor of the registry.  His insights, and the resulting comments, are worthy of your time, especially if you hate the registry.

Extremetech explains how the registry is accessed.

Yet there are many who simply hate the Registry with a hate that burns clear and hot. Many of the complaints revolve around

• Program uninstallation aka 'registry cruft'. Some people are fanatical about the idea that when they remove a program, they want it gone, with no traces left behind, regardless of whether those traces are visible to the user or not.
• Misunderstandings. Not knowing how the registry is accessed by programs and the OS, some people assume that extra data in the Registry slows the operating system down.
• Complexity and lack of transparency. Much of the Registry is filled with key:value pairs whose purpose and meaning are difficult (if not impossible) to devine. The names of the major registry hives and their subkeys often do not immediately evoke understanding of what they do.
• Lack of documentation. Pick a key, any key. Where do you go to find out what it does, what its alternate settings might be?
• "Registry corruption" is often mentioned. Yet it rarely happens in the real world. KB307545 explains how to recover from 'corrupt registry'. But in many cases it is possible that the issue was not corrupt registry - rather, it was registry directing system to load a bad driver, service, or startup program. KB822705 acknowledges this, and speaks to the possible causes of registry corruption.