I am trying to find a way to save common data in my program that will not
change from different users.  I tried both HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and writting to
an ini file and storing it in my Program directory.  However, in order for
this to work, all the users need administrative privileges.

Is there a proper way to store common data that I am not aware of?

For example, I have a test number that I need to increment.  And this test
number must not change when the user changes.

If you follow MS's guide, you would store application specific settings in
app.exe.config, which is located in the same folder of the app, and store
user specifc settings in C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\AppcationData or
C:\Docunemts and Settings\UserName\Local Settings\ApplicationData.

With .NET2.0, you can specify a setting scope as "Application" or "User",
and the settings would be saved to different location automatically, so that
user can only read Application settings and read/write to his user settings.

If you really want to use Registry's "LOCAL_MACHINE", yes, you need admin
right to create a key.

You can have an admin go to the computer to create that key before your app
is used on that box; or you can make a installation package, and ask admin
right to install it. During the installation, the key is created. In both
the case, the key would be read-only to ordinary users. If you want user to
be able to read/write, you have to give user(or user group) on that computer
read/write permission to that key (do it via Regedt32, and it is clearly
some sort of Registry abuse).

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