Another "really simple question"... LOL!

[theo_neandonly]

I'm hoping you know the answer to this one -- err, two -- Nikos, since you've spent a lot of time getting sickeningly intimate with Window's architecture. (But I'll accept an answer from anyone, of course...)

Can you replicate any structure from HKEY_CURRENT_USER in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE? Would extra keys damage the system?

And,

Will the system/applications always look to HKLM first? Will it work?

I ask because,
(a) No one uses my computers but me, and conceivably someone I trust; and
(b) I set them all up the same way; and
(c) I'm trying to compile the reg keys for ALL my settings so that I don't have to muck about with Control Panel and a tweaking app and thirty-two text files of specific setting instructions after every fresh OS install. It takes hours.

It didn't matter until recently, because I only ever set up one user account: mine. So it was okay for configurations to be set in either HKLM or HKCU. But now I've run into a situation where I need to set up multiple user accounts, all of which will be clones of my original account. So I'd like to set ALL the configs in HKLM, so they apply no matter which account I'm logged into.

So, for example, I hunt down the reg key needed to disable Aero Shake. But the instructions I found tell me to put it in HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop. Okay, I think, I'll just substitute HKLM for HKCU. But no 'Control Panel' key exists under HKLM! So, can I just create the Control Panel\Desktop sub-keys under HKLM? Will that hurt anything? Will it work?

[nikos]

I don't know but if you play too much with HKLM you must have the windows installation disks (ahem) ready for a clean install!
HKCU is not a real key but a "clone" of somebody under HKEY_USERS, whoever is logged on
you can try little things here and there but do so at own risk

[theo_neandonly]

Now, Nikos, you know that tinkering with the system is the only way to learn! (Especially since MS won't give us good documentation of the registry.) So of course I have install disks handy. And backup images of my drive, too -- they're much quicker. I'm not afraid to break it, but it does mean more hours of my day wasted, so first I try to ask someone who already knows!