Configuring Applications

Back in the early days of 16-bit Windows, applications were commonly configured through the use of INI files. An INI file is a text-based configuration file with an .INI extension. Its structure typically contains named sections that hold configuration data in name-value pairs.

Application configuration that relied on INI files fell out of style when Microsoft introduced its 32-bit versions of Windows. When the company launched operating systems such as Windows NT and Windows 95, it encouraged developers to store their configuration information in the Windows Registry instead of INI files. As a result, the Windows Registry has evolved into a very important repository for all kinds of configuration data both for applications ...

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