Issue #28896: Deprecate WindowsRegistryFinder

Doc/library/importlib.rst

@@ -806,6 +806,10 @@ find and load modules.
 
    .. versionadded:: 3.3
 
+   .. deprecated:: 3.6
+      Use :mod:`site` configuration instead. Future versions of Python may
+      not enable this finder by default.
+
 
 .. class:: PathFinder
 

Doc/using/windows.rst

@@ -823,6 +823,14 @@ non-standard paths in the registry and user site-packages.
       * Adds ``pythonXX.zip`` as a potential landmark when directly adjacent
         to the executable.
 
+.. deprecated::
+   3.6
+
+      Modules specified in the registry under ``Modules`` (not ``PythonPath``)
+      may be imported by :class:`importlib.machinery.WindowsRegistryFinder`.
+      This finder is enabled on Windows in 3.6.0 and earlier, but may need to
+      be explicitly added to :attr:`sys.meta_path` in the future.
+
 Additional modules
 ==================
 

Doc/whatsnew/3.6.rst

@@ -1938,6 +1938,10 @@ are now deprecated. They were the only remaining implementations of
 been deprecated in previous versions of Python in favour of
 :meth:`importlib.abc.Loader.exec_module`.
 
+The :class:`importlib.machinery.WindowsRegistryFinder` class is now
+deprecated. As of 3.6.0, it is still added to :attr:`sys.meta_path` by
+default (on Windows), but this may change in future releases.
+
 os
 ~~
 

Misc/NEWS

@@ -457,6 +457,8 @@ Library
 Windows
 -------
 
+- Issue #28896: Deprecate WindowsRegistryFinder
+
 - Issue #28522: Fixes mishandled buffer reallocation in getpathp.c
 
 - Issue #28402: Adds signed catalog files for stdlib on Windows.