Setup also reads information from the registry to determine if the prerequisite components are installed. Each time you start a computer running Windows 2000, the recognizer places hardware configuration data in the registry. This data includes a list of hardware detected in your system. Windows 2000 kernel. During system startup, the Windows 2000 kernel extracts information from the registry, such as which device drivers to load and their load order.
Device drivers send and receive load parameters and configuration data from the registry.
Programs and device drivers can access this registry information to provide users with smart installation and configuration programs.