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Why is a registry file called a "hive"?

Useless trivia day.

Why is a registry file called a "hive"?

Because one of the original developers of Windows NT hated bees.  So the developer who was responsible for the registry snuck in as many bee references as he could.  A registry file is called a "hive", and registry data are stored in "cells", which is what honeycombs are made of.

Published Friday, August 08, 2003 4:44 PM by oldnewthing
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# RE: Why is a registry file called a "hive"?

Friday, August 08, 2003 6:44 PM by MartinJ
I guess a bad pun would be to talk about honeypots...

# RE: Why is a registry file called a "hive"?

Friday, August 08, 2003 7:47 PM by Brian Randell
Hmm, I thought it had to do with that fact that the data was structured using B-trees?

# RE: Why is a registry file called a "hive"?

Wednesday, August 13, 2003 2:20 PM by BrianJ
So, do you know the deal with MZ of MZ header fame? Is that really someone's initials? If so, whatever became of the real MZ?

# RE: Why is a registry file called a "hive"?

Tuesday, August 19, 2003 1:58 AM by Raymond Chen
MZ is indeed Mark Zbikowski. He still works at Microsoft and is one of the nicest guys it's been my pleasure to have met.

# RE: Why is a registry file called a "hive"?

Saturday, October 18, 2003 12:28 PM by Thomas Lee
And here I thought the analogy was meant to refer to the notion that if you mess around (with the registry) and do not know what you are doing - you will get stung (or additional practice in reinstallation).

# re: Why is a registry file called a "hive"?

Thursday, June 10, 2004 9:54 PM by Larry Osterman
Ok, so I'm coming to this 8 months late :) Mark actually interviewed me, it was absolutely the most pleasant of my on-campus interviews :).

# re: Why is a registry file called a "hive"?

Saturday, June 19, 2004 5:28 PM by Raymond Chen
Commenting on this article has been closed.

# Beware of non-null-terminated registry strings

Tuesday, August 24, 2004 9:58 AM by The Old New Thing
An edge case that can result in a buffer overrun.

# How did registry keys work in 16-bit Windows?

Thursday, January 17, 2008 11:11 AM by The Old New Thing

It didn't do quite as much back then.

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