I screwed the registry up!

[N42S74A]

I ran the regscrubxp and selected all the problems which were alot and clicked fix. When I restarted the pc I couldn't open ANYTHING without it asking me to select from a list. What should I do?

[juppy]

Can you get back into the Regscrubxp program at all? It has a restore button in there that's supposed to let you restore your registry to its previous state in case something goofs up.

[N42S74A]

I can't get back into any program.

[HAL9000]

Check the directory that Regscrubxp is installed to. It may have just exported the registry files as a backup in which case, just double click on the exported files which will import them again.

[juppy]

Yeah HAL, there is a backup in the directory. I just used the same program on my machine the other day and in C:\Program Files\RegScrubXP\ there is a file called "Backup" followed by a bunch of numbers....looks like the date or something. But yeah, its in there if he can get to it through the directory listing.

[N42S74A]

I know this is a really stupid question but what do you mean when you say directory? As in exactly where to go.

[juppy]

It means the structure of the different directories that your programs are stored in. A couple ways to get to it.....most people go to it by right clicking on the start button and picking Explore. Another method is to use the Command Prompt function to go about searching for it through the old style DOS screen way. If you're needing to click on the file though you'd have to do the first one because the command prompt screen doesn't have a cursor in it for clicking anything. In this case, if you used the right click and explore option, you would look at the list on the left and find where it says C:\Local Disk. You would go down from there until you find the directory "Program Files" and click on it. Any subdirectories under that would open up and in those you would look for a directory called "RegScrubXP" and click on it. In the right-hand frame would be the contents of that directory. If you see a file named Backup, you'd click on it and hopefully it would restore your registry to its previous state.

[N42S74A]

It won't let me open anything without asking me to select the program from a list. Now what?

[fudtone]

can you click on my computer and select (if needed) windows explorer?

[N42S74A]

yes

[fudtone]

by using that method can you find your way to the folder that contains the reg backup?

[N42S74A]

It tells me its not a valid win32 application when I go to open it.

[juppy]

Well, after checking the help file of RegScrubXP, I think I found something. The program makes a backup when it changes something in the registry. That's the file we were telling you to click on. Come to find out though, that is a backup that has to be accessed through the Restore button in the RegScrubXP program. There is another backup though, but it depends on whether you took the time to make it before you started. In the directory where RegScrubXP is installed, there are two files named HKLM and HKCU, and they are command scripts that will back up the registry using the DOS reg command. If you clicked on these before you started using the program, there should be two more files in that directory named HKLM and HKCU which have the description of "registration entries" (you'll need to be in the tiles or details view in order to see their descriptions). If you made those two registry files before you started, you should be able to click those and restore the registry. If not, well, I don't know how we're gonna get this thing restored really.