However, Windows also contains
a number of other databases that you don??™t normally hear about. These databases reside in Solution
Database (SDB) files. Some of these databases record application setup. You??™ll find that they normally
have a Setup.SDB filename. Other databases record service pack status and have names such
as AppHelp.SDB, AppH_SP.SDB, DrvMain.SDB, MSIMain.SDB, and SysMain.SDB. Still other databases
keep track of security or other system settings that don??™t appear in the registry such as SecEdit.SDB.
In short, Windows hides a lot of information in places other than the registry. You can access all of
these other databases using the Extensible Storage Engine Technology Utility (ESEnTUtl).
Not every SDB file on your hard drive is a database. To confuse matters, Microsoft also uses the
SDB extension for some text-based files. For example, the Setup.SDB file for Visual Studio is a textbased
file. You can read it using Notepad as shown in Figure 14.2. The text entries in this file can
tell you a lot about the application, but the information isn??™t in a form that ESEnTUtl can manage.
A true SDB file contains binary data.
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