Windows Registry
Most Windows applications still store their user settings in individual .ini (initialization) files spread across the disk. They additionally use the Windows Registry to store information which might be of interest for other software. For such programs the Windows Registry acts rather as a bulletin board, than as a user settings system. When such an application is removed (uninstalled), it is also rather the default than the exception, that its registry entries are not being purged and remain in the database. The Windows Registry is rather extensive and with time becomes more and more bloated. Without the user knowing exactly what to look for, a simple search can be compared to finding the "needle in a haystack." Therefore, with regards to purpose and volume, dconf cannot be compared to the Windows Registry. In fact the only commonality between dconf and the Windows Registry is the usage of a database.