>> especially since we've started using application hives to handle registry key synchronization.
>
>What are application hives?

They're registry hives that are tied to an application; we load the necessary section of the registry from a file using the API call RegLoadKey() during application startup; whenever application-wide registry values are altered, we save off the subkey tree to the hive using RegSaveKey(), so that they're communicated to other stations running the app the next time the application loads. This simplifies the process of adding new stations to our app, since the first time the application loads, the application hive will be loaded.