[Arryn]

Originally posted by Cainehill:
Use of the Registry slowed down computer boot times

Not significantly, if you have modern HDDs and MBs. Running XP on a very old system, at the minimum spec, is another matter. (The worst culptit, though, isn't the Registry but all the device drivers that must be loaded.) My XP Pro system boots to the desktop in well under a minute, a helluva lot faster than my Win9x box that has a far smaller Registry.

increased complexity, increased chances of catastrophic failure.

Only if the programmer doesn't fully understand what's s/he's doing. Which, alas, is the case for 90%+ of all applications since most dev shops don't have people on staff that are experts at OS internals, or even if they do, they aren't the ones writing the install code.