Registry vs. INI file for storing user configurable application settings

Question

I\'m a new Windows programmer and I\'m not sure where I should store user configurable application settings. I understand the need to provide a user friendly means for the

Answer 1

There's one more advantage to using an INI file over the registry which I haven't seen mentioned: If the user is using some sort of volume/file based encryption, they can get the INI file to be encrypted pretty easily. With the registry it will probably be more problematic.