the.com/registry

means A centralized database or official record system that stores configuration settings, and more broadly, any formal list where things get recorded and tracked.

from From 'register,' tracing back to Latin 'regerere' — 're-' (back) plus 'gerere' (to carry or bear) — literally meaning to carry back or enter into a record. The same root gave us 'regesta,' things entered in a list. By the time Microsoft got hold of it, 'registry' had long meant an official book of records — births, ships, property deeds — so the Windows Registry just claimed that bureaucratic gravitas for itself, promising order and delivering, often, chaos.