Added to NT 4.0 for compatibility with Win95. Because of its addition, NT4 can run most Win9x applications since they use that subtree. It is a shortcut to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Hardware Profiles\Current and will change depending on the hardware file. Stores information about the hardware profile specified at startup. Added to NT 4.0 and Win95 to allow multiple hardware configuations. The mapping of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE for the current configuration is in HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG. If the system has only one configuration, the original configuration, the data will always be the same here. Creating an extra configuration in Control Panel/System/Hardware Profiles puts extra information in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. In Win95 you are given a choice of hardware profiles everytime the computer is restarted. In NT, you choose the hardware configuration of choice in the LastKnownGood menu (accesses by pressing spacebar upon startup). The hardware profile which is picked is mapped into HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG. All the settings in HKEY_CURRENT_USER are the same in both NT and Win95. There are minor differences in location but the actual keys are the same. HKEY_CURRENT_USER and the currently logged-on user are both mapped from NTUSER.DAT.
