VS10 beta 1 The registry hives
***Disclaimer: This information applies to Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 only.***
The following list describes the registry hives used by VS 2008 and VS10
VS 2008
Main hive
- Root: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0
- User settings: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0
Exp hive
- Root: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0Exp\Configuration
- User settings: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0Exp\UserSettings
VS10
Main hive
- Root: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0
- Root cache: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0_Config
- User settings: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0
Exp hive
- Root: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0Exp_Config
- User settings: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0Exp
The registry root cache
This is the real hive that is being used by Visual Studio and its being created / updated at Visual Studio startup time.
Creation / Reconstruction
If the hive doesn’t exist it is created using the root (HKLM\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0) base information. This means that we can safely delete the hive and it will be created again on next Visual Studio launch.
If it exists but it differs from the root (HKLM\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0) is its reconstructed.
Update
If we recall the No more Devenv /Setup post Visual Studio monitors the following folders:
- %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\Extensions
- %VS10_Install_Dir%\Common7\IDE\Extensions
- %VS10_Install_Dir%\Common7\IDE\CommonExtensions
During VS startup if any changes are detected in those folders (new / delete / update) the pkgdef are merged again into the hive to reflect the latest definition.
Pablo
