Registry Mistake

[t-lan830]

i have question regarding a mistake that i had made on the windows registry editor a little while ago. recently, i had a very stupid decision to try and mess with the registry editor in order to try and fix a windows installer error that i had. as a result, i had decided to visit microsoft's website to try and fix the problem and came across a support page, in which i followed the directions to. the link to the page is here if you would like to see it: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315353/

now, i had followed the directions as closely as i can and once i was finished, i saved the changes i had made to the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT. once it saved, my computer still functioned normally and i thought that i had done a successful job. however, after i restarted my computer and logged on to my profile, i soon began to realize that i had made a mistake. all of the programs on my computer ceased functioning. instead all of my programs had an ".lnk" (ex. My Documents.lnk, and when i try to click on them it does absolutely nothing, or it gives me an error message stating "This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action. Create an association in the Folder Options control panel." however, i am still perfectly able to go on my computer as it has not crashed as a result of my editing. another odd thing i found was that the internet explorer and my email icons at the top of my start still work, which means i can still browse the internet, but nothing else. Is there any way for me to fix this problem that i made? The only possible options i have heard of are system restore, which like all of the other programs doesn't work, doing the "Last known configuration" option, or using backup files which probably wont work since I didn't back up my registry files.

If you have any idea on how i can fix this problem, then please let me know. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[martymas]

any one who messes with the reg

with out backing up is asking for problems

my advice is reinstall windows

and back up your registry

not many can fix a reg problem

unless your an expert

and then depends on how far you have gone

i always back up my reg in case of problems

and normally if i have to delete i do it in safe mode

my advice :

reinstall windows

you may have no other option

marty

[TheTerrorist_75]

Try a repair install of XP. This should fix the registry issue without losing your personal data.

http://www.besttechie.net/forums/Windows-X...rial-t1523.html

[Besttechie]

Hi,

Before you reinstall Windows - you might want to try the following fixes found here:

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/file_assoc.htm

Download each one, then run it, it should fix the file association issues for each file type listed there.

Make sure you download the zip file fix first and run that. It's a .reg file, so if you can't open zip files at this moment, you should be able to once you run the reg file. After you do the zip file fix, do the rest.

B

[t-lan830]

Hi,

Before you reinstall Windows - you might want to try the following fixes found here:

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/file_assoc.htm

Download each one, then run it, it should fix the file association issues for each file type listed there.

Make sure you download the zip file fix first and run that. It's a .reg file, so if you can't open zip files at this moment, you should be able to once you run the reg file. After you do the zip file fix, do the rest.

B

ok, im willing to try it, but is there a chance that this could make my computer worse than it already is? is there any risk factor involved to this?

[Besttechie]

It shouldn't make anything worse. What those registry files do is reset the default file associations for file types. I have yet to see them make a situation worse by doing some they're not supposed to. They've worked for me and for other people I've helped. So hopefully they'll work for you as well.

B

[t-lan830]

It shouldn't make anything worse. What those registry files do is reset the default file associations for file types. I have yet to see them make a situation worse by doing some they're not supposed to. They've worked for me and for other people I've helped. So hopefully they'll work for you as well.

B

oh, ok. well thank you for help. i just realized something though. the link you gave me showed a way to run cmd.exe through windows task manager. now that im able to run regedit.exe through there, should I just undo the mistake I made in registry editor, or just use the files you gave me instead? sorry for all these questions, i'm just curious is all.

[Besttechie]

Well, it depends and before I answer that question, it would be helpful to know what exactly you were editing and why you were editing it. Personally, I'd try the reg files in the link I gave you before you do anything else. However, if you know exactly what you edited and exactly what the settings/values of whatever you edited were before you edited them then it might be worth a shot to undo your changes and see if that fixes the problem.

B

[t-lan830]

Well, it depends and before I answer that question, it would be helpful to know what exactly you were editing and why you were editing it. Personally, I'd try the reg files in the link I gave you before you do anything else. However, if you know exactly what you edited and exactly what the settings/values of whatever you edited were before you edited them then it might be worth a shot to undo your changes and see if that fixes the problem.

B

well i tried the files first but for some reason they wouldn't open. not even the reg one would open. well it doesn't matter anymore though because i solved the problem. i undid the change i made in registry editor and my computer is like it once was again! thanks so much for your help though. i appreciate it!

[t-lan830]

oh, one more thing. that page with all of the links on it. i noticed one of them had an msi registry file. if i download only that file and put it in the registry, would that fix my windows installer problem? im not gonna risk putting something into my registry until i know for sure that its safe. wouldn't want to screw my registry up again.

[garmanma]

oh, one more thing. that page with all of the links on it. i noticed one of them had an msi registry file. if i download only that file and put it in the registry, would that fix my windows installer problem? im not gonna risk putting something into my registry until i know for sure that its safe. wouldn't want to screw my registry up again.

Repair Windows installer

Microsoft

Mark

[t-lan830]

ok, i have been looking online for so long and have not found a solution to my windows installer problem. i tried the page you have mentioned too garmanma, and it didnt work. i took a daring expedition back into the registry editor, and as i was looking at the doug knox msi reg. file still lingering on my computer, i noticed that some of the folders and binaries found in the msi fix were missing in my registry while some werent. perhaps i am missing a couple of regsitry files for msi? ive considered exporting the msi1.reg file to the my registry, but i dont want to screw up the registry AGAIN. if i add the reg. fix file to my registry, will it overwrite the corrupted and/or missing files? or will it just screw my computer up again?