Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Reset the entire registry permissions to defaults

This post is moved to the following URL:
Reset the Registry and the File Permissions in Windows XP - The Winhelponline Blog

100 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've spent the last few hours trying to resolve a problem on my computer - and your advice was *the only* thing that was successful. Thank you so much for your help.

Anonymous said...

thanks a lot for this!!

Anonymous said...

For me it mostly worked, but something odd happened. Some registry permissions granted to a specific user (me) were reset from full control to read only. The user specific permission overrides the group permission, so keys I had access to were no longer accessible, causing some programs to break.

It's fixed now, but it's odd that it happened.

Anonymous said...

If after many hours one finds a solution one wants to SHOUT: Terrific to you! Stupid to oneself! Should have found it on the internet much more quickly!!

In my case it solved the problem described under

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=831430

However the solution mentioned did not work. Yours did!

Many thanks!!

Anonymous said...

Great Man!
Guru Ramesh solved a problem I had only with one of my two accounts. After hours seaching the intenet, this finally worked!
This Page is on top of mu favorites now!

Many, many thanks

Anonymous said...

I have spent exactly 10 hours trying to resolve the problem and that includes spending 3 hours online with Symantec on the very same issue. Just 10 minutes ago I found your clever fix. Thank you very much for your input, I would never have resolved this issue

Anonymous said...

For some reason I was getting all sorts of little problems - Media Player would not start, User Accounts dialog box blank, Itunes unable to set itself as default player, Live messenger not working etc. Some of these faults were on all users whilst others were apparent only on some users. After much searching and putting one and one together I deduced that the registry permissions were screwed. After further searching found this post, ran it and everything now appears to be working.

Many thanks.

Anonymous said...

Ramesh thank you every much

my Classes_root permission got messed up, windows wouldn't recognise .exe files anymore

Searhced the internet (witht heopen windows i had left) for solution, i came across your blog, and this fixed my problem,

The tool is currently resetting the permissions, and programs now come back to live

Very gratefull that you posted this, saves me a format

Anonymous said...

Windows Media Player'ınız çalışmıyorsa, Internet Explorer'da yeni sayfa açtığınızda sayfa boş geliyorsa, Sistem Geri Yükleme penceresi ve Hizmetler (Gelişmiş sekmesi) listesi boş ise bu çözüm tam aradığınız çözüm. Valla Ramesh Allah senden razı olsun. Thx a lot...

Anonymous said...

Yes! Your fix has indeed fixed a lot for me. Thank you. Various situations in iTunes produced error messages that no users anywhere seemed to be able to fix. But you came through for me...thanks!

Anonymous said...

I am truly thankful for this fix. I have spent 2 days trying to get this problem corrected! I converted a FAT32 to NTFS after doing a 2000 to XP upgrade, when stuff started to happen. Now, everything is working fine and I feel like a king!

Thanks!

Anonymous said...

You are a genius! I spent hours trying to fix this mess. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Ramesh - Thanks!

Anonymous said...

These are definitely not the same "Anonymous" person posting because this fix rocks! It's annoying that Microsoft doesn't have it plastered all over their KB pages because I spent far too much time with those non-fixes.

I had various strange installer and uninstaller issues where it would hang up and repairing the 3.1 Installer didn't work. .NET 2.0 would hang up and not install. The cleanup tool didn't work. I then tried using the great Autopatcher program to reinstall hotfixes etc but that program failed to start and none of the recommended fixes for that specific issue on their site worked either.

So before installing XP over the top of 2000 for a brute force fix I ran this registry permissions script and BOOM! That allowed Autopatcher to do it's magic for the rest of my troubles. Although I had to kill .NET 2.0 install process because that still hung up, it got so far that it showed up in add-remove. Now I'm able to uninstall all the programs that hung when removing them before. And the Java JRE now installed when it previously would freeze up.

Thanks Ramesh!

Anonymous said...

Thanks. This solution avoided me a total system re-installation because Symantec Liveupdate would not install properly giving an Error Code : 10.
Thanks Again.

Anonymous said...

Thanks! this fix took care of my problem. Much appreciated!

Anonymous said...

Your fix worked... you are brilliant!

Anonymous said...

Thanks Ramesh, saved my day.
-Max

Anonymous said...

I had a problem installing regsvr32 vbscript.dll and regsvr32 jscript.dll
I searched for hours and tried several times to modify registry permissions without luck. At last I found your magnificent solution!

Many many thanks!

Anonymous said...

Amazing ! all issues solved ... how much I hate Microsoft poor documentation..For ppl who want to have XP may want to have a look at this amazing stuff too..-
http://www.informationweek.com/windows/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=189400897

Anonymous said...

Hi, all my file associations were corrupted and hence I used your method and fixed the associations of the file. But now I am facing multiple permission errors like , 0x8007005 ( Access is denied _ errors while removing a software from Add/Remove or "Windows Installer cannot be started" inspite of it being in the Services as running. Help would be highly appreciated.
bytespedition@gmail.com
WinXP

Anonymous said...

Hi, all my file associations were corrupted and hence I used your method and fixed the associations of the file. But now I am facing multiple permission errors like , 0x8007005 ( Access is denied _ errors while removing a software from Add/Remove or "Windows Installer cannot be started" inspite of it being in the Services as running. Help would be highly appreciated.
bytespedition@gmail.com
WinXP

Anonymous said...

Ramesh,

Thanks for coming up with that fix. Q: While processing the hundreds of thousands of changes, 14 errors were display (no details or log of those errors were produced). Could a log of changes that failed be made, so that one can examine the few that didn't make it. "15 Failed" is not a bad number out of 260,000 changes. But it would be nice to know WHICH 15 failed. :)
Kudos!!!

Anonymous said...

Thanks a million for this fix, after 3 days with Symantec live chat getting nowhere and on the verge of a reformat, I tried this and it worked a treat, well done!!

Anonymous said...

Hello in my case the IE7 install failed to write to the .application key. Your brute force reset all fix didn't do it for me. But, I found the permission for "Administrators" was not enabled for the above mentioned key. When I changed this the install worked ! Wow, I really love IE7. More usable screen real estate and the quick page tabs are womderful.

Anonymous said...

Ramesh, thanks so much for posting this fix. For two days, I've slogged through various proposed fixes on Windows XP, trying to solve a permissions problem in the registry. JSCRIPT.DLL and VBSCRIPT.DLL could not be registered. Various programs (WMP 11, Norton Internet Security, Users and Groups dialogue box, etc.) failed to display complete screens. Your fix worked magic on this machine. Kudos and best wishes in the New Year.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the information and after some 20 attempts I tried your solution and at last IE7 was installed. I was a bit worried as its a bit low level for me but hey nothing ventured nothing gained. Thanks again

Anonymous said...

Running XP SP2. For unknown reason, my kids (separate user accts) noticed every IE7 page was rec'g "Error on Page". Explicitly displaying each error was displaying only a blank error popup - no error number, no error msg; Continue Yes/No prompt did nothing. IE could only be killed via Task Manager. Then I noticed from my account (Admin) the File Explorer "Search" Window was essentially blank (no buttons, no text boxes,etc.) Things were looking bleak. I searched and searched; tried my recommended solutions (downloaded new v5.6 Scripting Engine, all XP updates, all IE7 XP2, re-registered jscript.dll, vbscript.dll, re-installed the Search via srchasst.inf, checked every MS KB), nothing fixed it. Just when a restore or full reinstall seemed the only answere, I wondered across this life saver. I followed Ramesh's SUBACL instructions then followed by regsvr32 javascript.dll and regsvr32 vbscript.dll - thank the Lord and Ramesh, IE7 and the "Search" are now working. Note, the registering of javascript and vbscript were necessary. I'm taking extremely good notes for next time as I have no idea what caused the rather sudden malfunction with the registry (I have up-to-date Norton with anti-virus, worm, etc. detection. It's scan showed no abnormalities.)

Anonymous said...

THANKS! THANKS! THANKS! THANKS!. I had a problem since months with installshield (class not registered for ikernel.exe) where nothing could save my system and your procedure solved it in few minutes.Compliments again.

Anonymous said...

Thanks SO much!!! If this didn't work I was going to have to re-format my computer.

If you're ever in Toronto, let me buy you a beer!

Warren

The Iceman said...

I had been having serious problems getting Windows to remember the Auto Arrange and QuickLaunch toolbat settings after uninstalling the Norton System Security software that came with a recent laptop purchase.

It turns out the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\1 key had gotten the permissions all messed up. So I gave up after a couple of months before I found your blog post.

Granted, this isn't the biggest deal in the world, but it fixed two major annoyances for me.

Thank you VERY much!

Anonymous said...

I tried ( with zero results) to fix windows live messenger. I tried every fix I could find from several experts. I tried for too many hours.

This fixed it instantly.

Thank you!!!

John Paquette said...

Rock and ROLL! I was failing to install IE7 because my registry permissions were messed up. I followed your advice and IE7 installed without a hitch!

Anonymous said...

OUTSTANDING ! ! !

Forgive me for shouting but this solution has eliminated a need format and install from scratch.

Anonymous said...

Hi. Thanks for the fix. I see about 60 total failures and wonder if they are related to open and running programs in the background?
Many of the running processes cannot be terminated once XP is in full run mode.

I was unable to run reset.cmd from the Safe Mode due to BSOD - probably due to registry corruption.

Are there any fixes to BSOD?

Any chance to comment directly to my email is OK: legal_research at verizon.net

Thanks,

B

Anonymous said...

I have tried hours to fix a file association problem. The association wouldn't stick for 4 out of 5 users on my PC. Using regedit resulted in an error trying to edit the association for PPS files.
This fixed the problem. Thank you very much Ramesh!

Best regards,
Folkert (from The Netherlands)

Anonymous said...

"followed Ramesh's SUBACL instructions then followed by regsvr32 javascript.dll and regsvr32 vbscript.dll - thank the Lord"

javascript wasn't working after i installed IE7. No java links, buttons, even windows update wasn't appearing.

Followed instructions above, and now it works. thanks very much.

thanks very much!

Anonymous said...

error on logging in Windows life messenger error 800401f3 and 80048883. been experiencing this for 2 months already... followed the instructions.. and gotcha!!! solve my problem... thanks to you!!!

Anonymous said...

Wow...
I'd just like to echo the wealth of happiness gratitude and relief on this page.
After searching trying everything I was so close to doing and XP reinstall, for all the following meaid player not working jbscript vbscript user account blank page etc...
You saved me :)
thank you so much

Anonymous said...

Just adding to the masses well deserved praises..... was trying to install Windows Installer 3.1 and it kept failing... tried the v2 rdist exe.... to get "Access Denied"... found out that was relating to the registry.... found your site... badda bing.. badda boom..... need i say more... Keep up the good work

Anonymous said...

Hi,

Are there any drawbacks or cautions about using this specific tool in this specific process?

What specifically does it do to the system and will it cause any irreparable harm?

It seems to be touted as a fairly wide panacea for a wide range of problems, does doing this cause any which users should be cautious of?

Thanks for your time.

Erik Brann

Anonymous said...

I had a problem with installing drivers for Broadcom 440x on my dell inspiron E1505. This worked very fine for me.

Anonymous said...

Are these really the defaults? Does system and Administrator really have access to every system registry entry by default?

Thanks, P

Unknown said...

Will this work for Windows Vista?

Anonymous said...

You just saved a laptop from the scrap heap. Its previous user screwed around with it royally, and I have been beating on it for 4 weeks trying to save it as a company resource. Microsoft and the laptop vendor were useless. After this fix it is now on the fast track to complete recovery.

Unknown said...

Excellent!!! The only thing that worked. It took me almost 3 weeks to find the right solution. Thanks a lot

Anonymous said...

Great!
I had a problem with dllregisterserver 0x80004005 and that fix solved!
Many thanks!!

Anonymous said...

Thanks - I've been trying to fix a host of http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=831430 type issues for two days - I was sure it was related to permissions on keys but couldn't find the bad ones. Your fix did it. The only suggestion would be to work with google to have your fix come up for any search for jscript.dll, vbscript.dll, 0x80004005, windows update blank, etc.

Kurt Buck said...

I was having problems with installing Windows Update on Windows XP SP2. Windows update failed with error code 0x8024D007.

I tried to regsvr32 wuapi.dll, and got the following error:
dllregisterserver in wuapi.dll failed 0x80070005.

Hopefully someone Googling these errors can find this article after my post, it took me a long time to come across this one and would have saved me a lot of time.

Resetting the permissions in the registry as mentioned in this post fixed the problem.
Thank you!

Anonymous said...

Truly Thankful, Whay dont M state this in their KB articles. Like a lot of othe rpeople our organisation has had numerous intermittent problems, that were often only resolved with a re-image (quicker). This one is definately going on the shelf in the Rumpus Room!

Anonymous said...

Finally worked for me, Thanks. I guess I didn't follow the instructions properly.

Anonymous said...

I had a problem installing jscript.dll - tech support for the application I was installing AND microsoft so-called "experts" couldn't solve the problem. But this did! Thank you very mcuh

Matt Philmon said...

Thank you SO much. We modified the login script at our company from a small batch file mapping network drives (everyone had a personal one - it was a mess) to using a short and simple vbscript using Active Directory. It worked fine on all machines except one which failed to create the file system object. While trying to work out the problem I tried reinstalling Microsoft Script and the Script Debugger but both failed to register key DLL's (vbscript.dll and pdm.dll). I couldn't register them manually either. Tons of googling lead me through a couple of links and I landed here. This fixed it all right up. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Absolutely Brilliant. Many other tech support groups could not solve my install problems but you made it very simple.
THANK YOU THANK YOU

Unknown said...

ramesh, you are my HERO. you saved me from a windows reinstall! :D :D

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this. solved another issue with registry on winxp

Anonymous said...

I had such a stupid problem where I denied one of the keys of the administrators, and it caused all sorts of problems... But uh... now it's fixed... so thanks!

Anonymous said...

Anyone please!
Stupid question, but how what kind of file are you creating when creating "reset.cmd"? I assume it is a text file. When I did it says" not recognized as an internal or external command, operatble program or batch file."
Thanks, Vince

Anonymous said...

Thanks a lot for the tip. Unfortunately it DID NOT help this particular problem. For some reason about 6 registry keys spread out through the registry won't let me modify the permissions with your tool script or manually by modifying the permissions on the key.

Please let me know if you can help. CyberShaman

Anonymous said...

Great tip.

Had all kinds of trouble installing Visual studio 2003 and 2005 under Vista.

Reset HKCR and the problem was solved. Was previously receiving the message "proper type library could not be found in the system registry" upon starting VS2005 and SQL Server Studio

Anonymous said...

What about Windows 98? I have the same problem with Symantec Live Update (Error 10 - no permission to alter registry). SubInACL does not work for Windows 98.

Anonymous said...

I could KISS you Ramesh!! I have had a problem installing Windows Media Player 11 for 6 months and this has fixed it!! You are a legend!

Dave said...

Ditto to all the posts above- THANK YOU!
I did a motherboard swap, used Windows repair to update the drivers, but it also messed up my registry permissions- Noticed it when I couldn't install any of the windows updates- tried lots of things, but your fix is the one that worked!

Arathi said...

thx a lot but it doesn't work on my computer. when i paste the commands on to the prompt it says that it is not an internal or external command. please help! i have been searching for not hours but months! please help!!!!!

Anonymous said...

whats cmd mean? i made the folder and named it, what it says to name it. now i dont know what cmd means? My msn has been down almost three weeks,im pretty much trying everything single thing out there!!!

Anonymous said...

GENIOUS!! This fix helped me resolve a problem installing an app built with InstallShield. In a nutshell, bunch of DLL/OCX files failed to self register because a previous application installed on the same XP client had changed ACLs on a bunch of CLSID registry keys. Running reset.cmd allowed the app to install successfully with no further MSIEXEC errors. Not sure of the repurcussions or whether this will cause a ripple effect for other apps, but I'm willing to cross that bridge later down the line...

This fix saved me having to rebuild a PC using our standard image.

Anonymous said...

thanks for this great tool! It works for me.

I was getting a virus that changed default registry permission.

Unknown said...

Will these sames steps work on with Vista Home Premium?

Anonymous said...

Hy.
Sorry for my English ...

I was reinstall XP for 3 times to fix this problem. Now I found the solution after 2 day search.

Many Thanx

Anonymous said...

frustrating this.,.. everyone else seems to have this worked for them..

1. Download and install SubInACL

ok done !

2. Create a file named reset.cmd in C:\Program Files\Windows Resource
Kits\Tools folder.

how do you create a file ?? i can only create folders ?

and then how do I edit these to add all the HKEY stuff ?

please can someone help a bro who only has basic computer skills

thanks so much

cakonopka said...

This is a brilliant program, real easy to use, what do i have to change in the code on the reset.cmd file to get it to reset all the security permissions on all of my other hard drives and not just the system root. Be greatful if u could drop me an e-mail to cakonopka@gmail.com.

Many Thanks

Chris

Anonymous said...

I had a problem with installing a program that needed VBScript. I tried almost everything manually, but nothing worked.

After trying your solution it WORKED.
Thnx alot.

Anonymous said...

This is too good....

Thanks

Anonymous said...

I've tried your fix, didn't reset permissions on the keys I need to delete. any other suggestions?

Anonymous said...

For some reason I was getting all sorts of little problems - Media Player would not start, User Accounts dialog box blank, Itunes unable to set itself as default player, Live messenger not working etc. Some of these faults were on all users whilst others were apparent only on some users.
Buy Soma
Buy Zanaflex
buy cialis online
buy cialis online
buy cialis online
buy Zanaflex
buy Novladex
Buy Imitrex Online

Anonymous said...

I had a problem registering vbscript.dll and jscript.dll. Nothing would work. After much research I narrowed it down to permissions, but realized many more reg entries had no permissions set. All this happened after installing TurboTax 2007 with .NetFramework V2.0.
I searched for many hours and tried several times to modify registry permissions without luck. Finally I found your magnificent method to reset the permissions.
Now if I only remembered to backup before I did the install I wouldn't have had such a huge problem.

Thanks so much for your fix!
Barry G.

Anonymous said...

Hats off to you, sir.

Thank you for ending all my problems in one go...

Anonymous said...

Hey Ramesh
I've read these comments and i've tried to do what you said to do, but I can't seem to do it properly- or I just don't know exactly how to do it. I know, it's 2008 and all and you've posted this in 2005, but hopefully you still check this and look at the comments because I really would like your help. Msn does not work on any of the users on my computer and it seems ( from the comments) that it really does work. So if you can get back to me that would be greatful:
suck.my.kiss_@hotmail.com
I'll be checking my email frequently for your help.
Thankyou!!!

Unknown said...

My search companion does not work and windows media player also does not work. I tried regsvr32 jscript.dll and it worked for one admin account. But it does not work for other accounts (another admin and a guest). I have tried setting registry permissions as well but to no avail. I would really appreciate your help.

Anonymous said...

thank you thank you thank you!


Any cmd to make a report when its done?
had a few fail but doesn't seem to matter now,
everything so far is working!

Anonymous said...

I've gotten up to #5
'Enter the following commands one at a time and click Enter.

cdcd "C:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools"
reset.cmd'


but when I copy the first line into Command Prompt, it tells me it doesn't recognize "cdcd" as anything. Help?

Anonymous said...

this is WONDERFUL!!!!!!

The rest of the web says it is just for
XP Pro.


But I had nothing to lose, so used it on my XPHome
and everything, just everything I had been fighting magically is 100% better.

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

hi, thanks heaps! great info...

but :) you're article title is slightly wrong caused you've missed something.

to reset ALL registry permissions you also need to run
/keyreg commands as well as /subkeyreg.

otherwise HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE etc won't be reset, just their subkeys.

Anonymous said...

What's your bank account number?

Helped me avoid installing XP all over again.

t. Toni / Finland

Anonymous said...

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! Worked like a charm, saved me hours if not days regaining access to a registry that lost 1/3 of its permissions

Anonymous said...

Hi

could anyone help expanding step 2:

2. Create a file named reset.cmd in C:\Program Files\Windows Resource
Kits\Tools folder.

-what sort of file (perhaps i dont know how) but is a notepad file what I'm after?

Anonymous said...

THANK YOU!
It's great to finally find an "Expert" that can really solve my problem. I've asked several online "experts", and of the few that replied to me, NONE had a proper solution.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Another happy visitor! I had a problem trying to run regsvr32.exe against an activex dll. Kept getting DLLRegister Server failed with error code 0x8000405. This was on a Windows 2000 machine. Followed your steps and its all good! Thanks for the help!

Anonymous said...

so how do i create the file named reset.cmd

Anonymous said...

Thank you Ramesh!

I used this fix to solve a problem I'd been having with installing Adobe Reader 8.0 -

"Error 1402: Could not open key... blah blah."

It worked perfectly. Thanks again!

Unknown said...

great job !
but one question, will this reset permissions for all user accounts or only the one the reset command is run on? you can email me on nota.beaver@gmail.com

Thx

Anonymous said...

I have used this on several PCs now with no ill effects. Messed up registry permissions are so common and can cause really odd behaviour that is difficult to pin down, normally software or drivers that refuse to install or load.

This is brilliant, thank you!

Anonymous said...

I am having problems with this....I simply can not get from 2 to 3. I am created a folder, named it reset.cmd both in the mentioned tools folder and along side of it and can't get anything in it. I believe this fix is way over my capabilities right now which irritates me to no end. I am going to continue to try and educate myself on this, but if anyone can give me step by intricate step instructions, I would be so very appreciative.....
julz2bug@sbcglobal.net - please mention registry fix in subject line...thank you thank you thank you!!
* Also had to copy this and use Firefox to leave a message. I am going to start pulling my hair out any minute. (Deep breath)
Thanks again.

Anonymous said...

This is crazy! One of the best finds out there. Fixed file association problems and registry locking after I REMOVED THE COMPUTER FROM A DOMAIN TO A WORKGROUP. I am bolding this because I know there are people Googling for a solution. The domain account retains the registry modify permissions while the new local admin account cannot get them. FIXED FIXED FIXED. Brilliant. Thank you!

Anonymous said...

This is not the correct way to repair either Registry or File permissions.

There are keys that the Administrator does not have full access to on purpose.

Here is the correct way to repair it.

How to reset security settings back to the defaults
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313222/

stat said...

u know computer problems man

Unknown said...

Maybe I am beyond redemption but when I run the command I get XXXX Modified and the same amount has Failed.
Anyone? Or do I need a rebuild?

Anonymous said...

Thanks a lot. Your suggestion worked for me.

Here is only one minor suggestion. You need to change "cdcd" to "cd".

5. Enter the following commands one at a time and click Enter.

cd "C:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools"
reset.cmd

Anonymous said...

Hi !
I am working for tech support in xyz company and we deal in famous softwares applications,for every issue wihich our customers face regarding permissions for regisrty i use your advise and it works... It really works
This has resolved all my issues related to installation failure caused by registry.
Thank u very much..

Anonymous said...

brilliant!! thank you mr. person. i appreciate. I couldnt install IE7 but this made it work!!