Sandbox Registry for Application

Question

Is there a native Windows method to make an application use a .reg file, or something else, for all of it's registry calls to make it portable? I hoping there is one similar to the appdata folder which works like this: set APPDATA=%CD%\data

I understand that there are other programs such as ThinApp that can be used to create portable programs but I don't want to use one of those for this purpose.

I am running Windows 7 if that matters.

Answer 1

No, Windows does not provide a way for you to have a custom registry per application. It would go against why they have the (central) registry in the first place. :)

You need a 3rd party utility to help pull it off.

For more information on dealing with the registry and portable apps, perhaps check out what PortableApps.com has to say regarding it (short version: use their launcher):

Dealing with the registry