DAMAGED WINDOWS REGISTRY

Win 98

(for Win Me*. & XP Use the System Restore)

"Installed a program & now I don’t have ……..

The Windows registry may have been corrupted  
 

Background

  Windows backs up the registry on startup & stores the last five backups.  As well as this it is possible to back up the Registry while doing a normal backup or on it's own.

  There is a program within Windows 98 called "Scanreg" go to START BUTTON - RUN & type (scanreg)

  Scanreg will check the registry and should tell you that your registry has been backed up today & would you like to do it again.

  By default there are 5 backups stored by windows.

               They are stored as (rb###.cab) files from rb000.cab to rb004.cab.  These are hidden files so to see them you must have             "Show all files" must be ticked. - MY COMPUTER - VIEW from the menu on top of window - FOLDER OPTIONS - select    VIEW tab - & click the box next to SHOW ALL FILES

          The files can be found in C:\Windows\Sysbckup\

 To restore the "registry" from one of these files as far as I know you must quit to "dos"

START - SHUTDOWN - RESTART IN MS-DOS MODE.

Then when the C:|WINDOWS prompt comes up type (scanreg) then press ENTER  

* With Windows ME. you can use a boot disc to run (scanreg)

scanreg will start up, follow the prompts, you can select the file you wish to backup from then click on RESTORE

Long Term

 The trouble will relying on "scanreg" for backup is that the files are replaced after 5 starts and it may take longer than that to discover you have a problem.  This can be over come by increasing the number of backups "Windows" saves.

 This can be done in (scanreg .ini) START - RUN - type (scanreg.ini)   Look for ( MaxBackupCopies=5 )  the 5 may be set to a number between 1 & 99.  Each back up will use 3 or 4 megs of disc space though.

As an alternative to this one or more of the "rg###.cab files could be copied & saved under a different name.

The other way using the "Backup utility" in "Windows", if this is not installed it can be installed using the "WINDOWS SETUP" in "ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS"

MY COMPUTER - CONTROL PANEL - ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS - WINDOWS SETUP - SYSTEM TOOLS

To backup the registry with a normal backup of other files go to TOOLS -PREFERENCES - and make sure that the middle option is selected " Backup or restore the registry when backing up or restoring the windows directory " The other options may be selected or not as you like.

Then go to OPTIONS at the bottom of the "Backup window" click on the ADVANCED tab and make sure that "Back up Windows Registry" is selected.

This will back the registry up, when you backup your other files.

To back up & restore the registry on it's own, create an empty folder & call it something like "AAAempty", this will make it sit on top of the file tree & make it easy to find.

Backup will not back up unless you have selected at least 1 folder, so by creating this empty folder you can replace the registry and not disturb the rest of you files.  This backup file will also fit on two floppy's, or mine does

To create a folder MY COMPUTER - open C drive - FILE - NEW - FOLDER- it comes up with a name of "New Folder" highlighted, type in the name you would like.

 A new backup should be made before and after new software installed.

 One problem a backup doesn't fix is when a program sets itself up as the default program that opens a type of file. JPEG .jpg for instance. Restoring the registry won't change it back, I tried.

This will

MY COMPUTER - VIEW - FOLDER OPTIONS - FILE TYPES - select the file type you want to change and click EDIT - click OPEN - and click EDIT.  You can then type in the path to the program you wish to use or use the "Browse" button to find it.

Hope this is of use to you.

Scanreg is in the Help File.  As we farmers have done for years "When all else fails, read the instructions"

Try this

Run "walign" from the Run command line in the start menu to speed up your system. Doesn't do much for a new or recently reinstalled system, but a system that has been up for a while should see a diffrence.

Glen