Originally Posted By: Kdyer
 Originally Posted By: Richard H.

The "gibberish" key names don't mean anything, they are just intended to be unique so sometimes developers use the product name and sometimes they don't. The idea is to avoid a clash if two different developers happen to use similar product names.


Actually, it does mean: GUID \:D

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID

HTH,

Kent


See, now that's a challenge and I've got to up-pedant your pedancy ;\)

Actually it quite deliberately *doesn't* mean anything. The point being that the key should be abstract and not risk a namespace clash. You can't look at a GUID and infer anything from it. If it was created with meaning then there is a risk that someone else who wanted a key with the same meaning would cause a clash.

GUID is what it is, not what it means.

Thanks for the link though, I was too lazy to go and find one.