os/windows/ GUID

Windows uses GUID's for a lot of things, especially in the registry. For example

{f31d4ad5-1271-4c2c-8c29-59c825e087e2}

I think the main aim is to ensure that there are no name clashes, that would happen if, for example, two different developers wanted to name their product MySuperGreatProduct(TM) – using GUID's ensures that each product can find its own registry information and that, if a program wants to load a particular product called MySuperGreatProduct(TM), it gets the right one, which may not happen if loading by name. An alternative is the reverse domain name approach used by e.g. macos where things are named e.g. com.apple.Safari and such.