RegEdit: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ vs. HKEY_USERS

[ChrisGreaves]

In my registry (RegEdit.exe) I see an entry:-

Code: Select all

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Excel\Recent Files

I see another entry:-

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HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-1753586194-2408440837-989898595-1000\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Excel\Recent Files

As far as I can tell, both keys have identical values (a set of FILEi showing files recently used in Excel2003).
Are these types of keys always twins of each other?
That is, if I were (in VBA) searching for stuff, could I focus my search only on the “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\” elements and safely ignore the “HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-1753586194-2408440837-989898595-1000” elements?

[StuartR]

I think that HKEY_CURRENT_USER always points to one of the entries in HKEY_USERS, depending on the ID of the logged in user

[HansV]

Yes - under HKEY_USERS, you'll find entries for each user, including the administrator account and "default" user. One of them will be for the one you login with, and that one is EXACTLY the same as HKEY_CURRENT_USER.

There are several such mirrored entries in the registry. Think of it as a SUBST.

[ChrisGreaves]

I think that HKEY_CURRENT_USER always points to one of the entries in HKEY_USERS, depending on the ID of the logged in user

Thanks Stuart (please see also my reply to Hans, once the Lounge has waited for a minute ...)

[ChrisGreaves]

Yes - under HKEY_USERS, you'll find entries for each user, including the administrator account

Oh
So say, just supposing, for arguments sake, I was writing a "most recently used" application.
I could include (to some extent) names of files that my co-workers were using?
Including {network drive}\my boss\performance review\Chris or similar?
Not that I could read the document, but I could find out when he/she started thinking about denying me a raise. Again.

Think of it as a SUBST.

You really know how to tug at my heart strings, don't you?

[HansV]

Unless you're an administrator, you cannot write to the registry entries of other users.

[ChrisGreaves]

Unless you're an administrator, you cannot write to the registry entries of other users.

Quite so.
But it seems that I would be able to read some data regarding the activities of other users?

[HansV]

I don't think so.