Patent ID: 8667512

Claim:
A method for storing and accessing software settings within a registry, comprising: creating a native node of a native data store by generating a native settings object containing a settings value; storing the native settings object in memory with a key using a first file type, wherein the native data store is associated with the first file type, and wherein the first file type is supported by the registry; registering the native node with the registry; receiving a non-native node of a non-native data store, wherein the non-native data store is associated with a second file type that is not supported by the registry; registering the non-native node with the registry using a class identifier for a custom registry class; receiving a request for settings data from an application in the form of an application programming interface (API) call; determining whether the requested settings data is in the native node or the non-native node; and implementing a singleton service associated with the registry to obtain the settings value in response to determining that the requested settings data is in the native node, wherein; the singleton service obtains the requested settings data from the native settings object within the singleton service; the singleton service returns the obtained settings data to the API; and the obtained settings data is returned to the application from the API.