Critics labeled the registry in Windows 95 a single point of failure, because re-installation of the operating system was required if the registry became corrupt. However, Windows NT uses transaction logs to protect against corruption during updates. Current versions of Windows use two levels of log files to ensure integrity even in the case of power failure or similar catastrophic events during database updates. Even in the case of a non-recoverable error, Windows can repair or re-initialize damaged registry entries during system boot. Equivalents and alternatives In Windows, use of the registry for storing program data is a matter of developer's discretion. Microsoft provides programming interfaces for storing data in XML files (via MSXML) or database files (via SQL Server Compact) which developers can use instead. Developers are also free to use non-Microsoft alternatives or develop their own proprietary data stores. In contrast to Windows Registry's binary-based database model, some other operating systems use separate plain-text files for daemon and application configuration, but group these configurations together for ease of management. In Unix-like operating systems (including Linux) that follow the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard, system-wide configuration files (information similar to what would appear in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE on Windows) are traditionally stored in files in /etc/ and its subdirectories, or sometimes in /usr/local/etc. Per-user information (information that would be roughly equivalent to that in HKEY_CURRENT_USER) is stored in hidden directories and files (that start with a period/full stop) within the user's home directory. However XDG-compliant applications should refer to the environment variables defined in the Base Directory specification. In macOS, system-wide configuration files are typically stored in the /Library/ folder, whereas per-user configuration files are stored in the corresponding ~/Library/ folder in the user's home directory, and configuration files set by the system are in /System/Library/. Within these respective directories, an application typically stores a property list file in the Preferences/ sub-directory. RISC OS (not to be confused with MIPS RISC/os) uses directories for configuration data, which allows applications to be copied into application directories, as opposed to the separate installation process that typifies Windows applications; this approach is also used on the ROX Desktop for Linux. This directory-based configuration also makes it possible to use different versions of the same application, since the configuration is done "on the fly". If one wishes to remove the application, it is possible to simply delete the folder belonging to the application. This will often not