Microsoft, starting from Windows95 put OS configurations on the Registry. It is not a text file. It's a database in one or more binary files.
Windows users have a lot of graphical tools that let them modify registry keys without using text editors.
It is not a requirement for a Windows application to use Windows Registry, so you can find applications that use .ini files (text files) to store the configuration.
For Unix/Linux users the text editor is more useful, besides the OS uses text files to boot, to control auto start of applications, to manage the firewall,etc.