title: Windows Registry Variables vs. Environment Variables?
body: <p>At first glance this seems like a purely subjective/aesthetic issue, but I'd be interested to hear opinions (especially any technical ones) on whether environment variables or the registry is the preferred place for storing configuration data in a Windows environment.</p>
  
  <p>I can currently only think of the following differences:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Registry settings are persistent across sessions, though I believe that environment variables can also have this property.</li>
  <li>It's easier to set environment variables from the command-line vs. using <code>regedit</code>
  
  <ul>
  <li>(Counter-argument: <code>regedit</code> easier for non-command-line apps?)</li>
  </ul></li>
  <li>Environment variables are more common across platforms (?).</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>I'm also aware that environment variables can be interrogated, modified and set from the registry. </p>