User Profile Hives
Other versions of this page are also available for the following:
.gif "A hyphen indicates that the information in this topic is not relevant for this platform, or that the platform does not support the API that is listed.")
.gif "A checkmark indicates that the information in this topic is relevant for this platform, and that any API listed is also supported on this platform.")
8/28/2008
With the hive registry, each time a new user logs on, a new directory is created for that user with a separate file for the user registry. This is called the user profile hive. A user's hive contains specific registry information pertaining to that user's applications, desktop, environment, network connections, and printer settings. The user profile hive contains all data under the HKEY_CURRENT_USER key. When the current user is logged off and another user is logged on, the new user's hive is mounted, and the data under HKEY_CURRENT_USER changes.
The registry subkey ProfileDir under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\init\BootVars registry key indicates the location where all user directories are placed. Each directory is given the name of the user to whom it belongs.