Registry Cleanup

Hi All,

I've tried using the Microsoft Answers forum... but they've not
exactly been helpful. I also have a 32bit OS, sorry!

A while back in attempting to check and correct my registry of any
problems I downloaded a program, RegSeeker (from Softpedia), which
edited permissions and has caused great problems since. (The program has
been verified as non-malicious, but clearly it doesn't do it's job)

The problems started with my inability to update Skype, then Windows
Updates, and now Silverlight. I need a tool that'll help resolve these
permission issues / corrupt keys.

The 'Patch Registration Cleanup Tool'
(http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...ng=en#filelist)
simply shows "a productcode must be specified" and exits.
The 'Windows Update Reseter' (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971058)
is most likely insufficient for my problem, and either way doesn't work.

Is there something that can genuinely help me? The issue is not one
particular key but a range of them - even taking individual keys I am
unable to use RegEdit to fix the problems. What can I do? Is a clean
install really the only thing that'll fix this?

Many thanks in advance,
Ian


--
evenicoulddoit

You've botched your installation with a registry cleaner - something so many
of us tell so many not to ever use precisely because of what it's done to
your machine. If it doesn't have an undo function and the distributor
doesn't provide any support, then the best thing you can do is a reinstall
without formatting. I'm not to be mean, but there is no way that anyone is
going to be able to tell you how to fix all the damage it did, as there is
no way you can tell us what damage it did since you cannot even access the
registry. All you're seeing now is symptoms, there may be much more that you
haven't even run into yet.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

"evenicoulddoit" <guest@unknown-email.com> wrote in message
news:75ff662c7534379594de04cb7dacdd92@nntp-gateway.com...
>
> Hi All,
>
> I've tried using the Microsoft Answers forum... but they've not
> exactly been helpful. I also have a 32bit OS, sorry!
>
> A while back in attempting to check and correct my registry of any
> problems I downloaded a program, RegSeeker (from Softpedia), which
> edited permissions and has caused great problems since. (The program has
> been verified as non-malicious, but clearly it doesn't do it's job)
>
> The problems started with my inability to update Skype, then Windows
> Updates, and now Silverlight. I need a tool that'll help resolve these
> permission issues / corrupt keys.
>
> The 'Patch Registration Cleanup Tool'
> (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...ng=en#filelist)
> simply shows "a productcode must be specified" and exits.
> The 'Windows Update Reseter' (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971058)
> is most likely insufficient for my problem, and either way doesn't work.
>
> Is there something that can genuinely help me? The issue is not one
> particular key but a range of them - even taking individual keys I am
> unable to use RegEdit to fix the problems. What can I do? Is a clean
> install really the only thing that'll fix this?
>
> Many thanks in advance,
> Ian
>
>
> --
> evenicoulddoit

No no, you're not being mean at all. In retrospect it was something very
silly, but what's done is done and if that means I have to reinstall
vista then so be it. I'll learn from it - Thanks for help.

I must say I'm lost on the Registry front however, and why there's no
"root" user that has global access.

Thanks again for the honesty


--
evenicoulddoit

Hi,

As to the "root" user, any admin account has sufficient privilege. The
problem is, since most users choose to run as admin rather than as a
standard user, this privilege is often the subject of exploits. Because of
this, it has become necessary to force even admin accounts to a select set
of permissions. Any action that requires "root" privilege must be
acknowledged, thus preventing undesirable actions without user intervention.
Once these permissions are altered, it is difficult at best to recover.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

"evenicoulddoit" <guest@unknown-email.com> wrote in message
news:880204f5b01075ed93c5aeb54b1fcadf@nntp-gateway.com...
>
> No no, you're not being mean at all. In retrospect it was something very
> silly, but what's done is done and if that means I have to reinstall
> vista then so be it. I'll learn from it - Thanks for help.
>
> I must say I'm lost on the Registry front however, and why there's no
> "root" user that has global access.
>
> Thanks again for the honesty
>
>
> --
> evenicoulddoit

Hi Guys,

I've had a look through at the backup .reg file that the program
created before ruining the system. The file doesn't merge, giving "Error
accessing registry", however - when trolling through all of the entries,
I found hundreds of Silverlight ones. If I remove 4 of these 300 odd
entries it processes correctly, but it's the keys with values starting
'@' that it fails on. A quick check looks like they set default values,
and it is these keys that I unable to access via RegEdit, and it is
these keys that are causing the system to slip up when trying to update.


Any ideas on this on?


Code:
--------------------

...
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Installer\Folders]
"c:\Program Files\Microsoft Silverlight\2.0.30523.8\fr\"=""

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Installer\Folders]
"c:\Program Files\Microsoft Silverlight\2.0.30523.8\"=""

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\TypeLib\{283C8 576-0726-4DBC-9609-3F855162009A}\2.0\0\win32]
@="C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Silverlight\\2.0.40115.0\\npctrl.dll"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\TypeLib\{283C8 576-0726-4DBC-9609-3F855162009A}\1.0\0\win32]
@="c:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Silverlight\\2.0.30523.8\\npctrl.dll"
...
--------------------


--
evenicoulddoit