after reading your post i got curios myself if mac has a registry and here is what i found
Let's examine what makes Mac OS X different from Windows that allows for this capability.
For one, Mac OS X doesn't have a registry. Ah, the Windows registry, one ugly feature of Windows that Microsoft is trying to phase out before Longhorn "Vista" (next version of Windows, due late 2006?) is released. There's nothing quite like the Windows registry in Mac OS X. There's no need for an application installer (or user) to manualy update some global list; it's all done automatically. Application settings and preferences are stored individually per app as XML "Property List" files in the user's Library/Preferences folder. Sometimes apps may keep additional support files in the Library folder, but these are completely inert. They are only accessed by the parent app itself.
source:
http://www.project-think.com/tipinfo.php?ID=2
