The registry is far from high performance. And given the registry is basically a massive hierarchical structure, how is it different from files re: "random places"? The same dev that dumps files in "Random places" would dump values in random places in the registry.

The registry is almost never a good choice for storing...anything outside of the operating system itself, unless the data is somehow tightly coupled with a specific Windows install (e.g. an activation key). The idea of storing instance data in the registry is madness.