> That was about when I gave up looking to Microsoft's own documentation> for anything useful.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms724871(v=vs.85).aspx
or for .net languages:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.win32.registry(v=vs.100).aspx
If you don't find that useful then I don't know what you are expecting...
