Hi Gang,
I think this will probably come in handy for most technicians. MS just released (12/16/03) a 6 floppy bootable corrupt registry repair tool for Windows 2000 variants only:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;830570
Cheers,
Christian Blackburn

on the download link I saw this...

*Supported Operating Systems: Windows 2000, Windows 2000 Service Pack 2, Windows 2000 Service Pack 3

Wonder what happens on SP4?

I agree... I took the specifying of Win2000, SP2, and SP3 to mean if you use it on SP4 would be bad juju. The date on the page is from September 23rd... SP4 was out for a while at that point if I remember correctly.

I have a test system w/SP4 on it. If no one calls me away tomorrow I'll run it on that system. If it goes up in flames I'll let you guys know

6 floppy? What is floppy? my mahcines don't hav these "floppies" in them..............

better be a cd iso version........

Hi Duhmez,
I totally agree with you. While I don't mind bootable single floppies, I always prefer a bootable CD option since CDs are more reliable and provide far faster data access (boot times). However in this whopping 6 CD instance that's just a pain in the arse. When will companies get with the times. It's not like Microsoft doesn't have the technology, I mean every OS since Windows 98 has been CD bootable and perhaps Win95 C was (did anyone ever use that? I used it, but it was so long ago I can't remember). It's not like we used it that much though since the Win95C user base was microscopic. ) However I think chronologically Windows 98 was actually released before Windows 95 C to have something to market to those that were afraid of trying Windows 98.

Hey speaking of computer company names starting with Micro. Does anyone else find it hysterical that there's a company called MicroAdvantage? Or how about a line of CPU fans with Beta as the product-line name . I can't think of who makes them, but I know a computer I just worked on had one and I thought it was too much .
Cheers,
Christian Blackburn

Not that it necessarily means anything, I did run it on my test system (Win2k w/SP4). No obvious damage was done to the registry. YMMV.

6 floppies... by the time you download this, create the disks (hope none of the floppies flake out, disk 3 died on me had to start over from beginning) boot the system with said floppies... took me about 30 minutes. This is something that really does need to be made in .iso format and run from cd.

it is a pretty handy thing though, thanks for the link!

Hi Mezron,
You're quite welcome for the link. I would recommend running SP4 again now that you have repaired your registry. Often with each service pack Microsoft ads new features and therefore registry settings. Since the repair utility officially only suppports SP3 I think it would be a good idea to play it safe. Also Alec, I wanted to mention that it would be a quite risky to run this on any other OS. With each new version of Windows there are major changes to the hardware abstraction layer, this typically means changes in the registry layout. For example both OS's recently shipped USB 2.0 supporting updates. They were however different for each OS. Sure some hardware will work flawlessly with XP without new drivers, but that certainly isn't the case across the board. Okay so your hardware won't work quite right, but each new version of Windows also has tons of new features so you might be missing registry settings for a particular OS component. However, I don't think that this tool would do a full reset on your registry unless things were really bad, so provided you backup first it might be an okay idea to run this on XP or 2K3, since it may just remove corrupt values. However, I would backup first. If the tool removes the corrupt registry settings and a WinXP or Win2K3 system still won't boot then I would run the installation program and perhaps it'd fix whatever was missing without loosing a bunch of application configuration info. However everyone here probably already knows that re-installation would be the safest solution for XP, and especially 2K3.

What are you doing for Christmas Alec? You have a new lady friend now don't you. Or did you get married. I think I've forgotten. I just started dating this gorgeous lawyer, she's amazing I'm going jogging with her in a little bit so I better shut up and take a nap first. For those of you who are curious she's a tall blond, thin/fit, vegan.

Merry Christmas Everyone (cue fake emotional holiday tears)
Cheers,
Christian Blackburn

Actually, that is a good piece of advice. This machine is just for testing things like this on though so I'm not too concerned. It rarely goes more than a week or two without being re-imaged. I was more interested to see if it does any obvious damage to a SP4 install. Maybe tomorrow I'll install XP on it and run this tool on it just to see what happens :x

At least the registry is really easy to backup on an already dead machine...
oh wait No it isn't.......
no xcopy from recovery console. No access outside of \ and %systemroot% by default
no saving files to floppy..... (for fixing boot.ini etc..... not for the registry per se)
No txt editor.
I look and the recovery console, and look at the price tag of the server software, and I shake my hed in disbelief.
Then a 6 floppy registry repairer comes out....
Does no one at m$ USE their products?

Go ahead, try to copy a file from the hard drive to a floppy. can't be done.
Windows recovery has got a long way to go that's for sure.

Hi Duhmez,
You hit the nail on the head. In my opinion they could improve on the recovery console by embellishing a copy of DOS with a menu, some updated utils, and of course NTFS support. How about Regedit for dos? That'd be hella cool. I keep hoping the FreeDos project will take on that task (a dos-based registry editor). Does anyone know of any non commercial dos-based registry editors?

Okay how about good commerical ones?
I think SysInternals and Touchstone's CheckIT both offer bootable registry editing.
Cheers,
Christian Blackburn

Folks,

We are creating Windows XP Pro disks to correct registry problems in Wondows 2000.

We are using Windows XP to bypass the password in Windows 2000.

Get a live Microsoft!!!

It's not DOS based, but Bart's PE Builder is looking pretty promising as a recovery tool

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

Use ERUNT or Backup Exec to backup your registry.

Also you should be able to transfer those floppies to bootable .ISO.

True that. 6 bootable iso......

Hi Alec,
Wow Queens eh. I guess I forgot you live in NY. The only time I ever saw Queens was in Coming to America. Are you in search of a fitting princess there too?
Wow so your job involves a lot of travel these days. That can be good and bad it all depends on how often, your personal outlook on the situation, and the status of your romantic relationships. What are they having you code in these days? Did you ever get the hang of Inno Setup?

I never did learn ISPP (the Inno Setup Pre-Processor, it'll take a look at the versions of your main binary and append that to the file name of your installer for example). However I did learn Innerfuse Pascal which has been helping me with Delphi too. I joined the Syn Text Editor Project on SourceForge which is a Delphi 5-7 project. see http://Syn.SourceFore.net. It's a great little program and their use of the system tray icon is revolutionary in my opinion. That's the part of the application I'm working on, but I'm just fixing bugs and trying to figure out what Stefan's code does in his system tray application at this point. I just fixed it so that when explorer crashes the tray icon will re-add itself to the system tray. I was using Delphi 7 Personal Edition, a copy I got with PC Plus, a magazine I had to
import from the UK, just to get a copy cheap . However Borland quite prudently in my opinion no longer offers patches to now paying users, so I'd have to buy D7 PE if I wanted to patch it and make a decent stable binary or code in a decent stable IDE for that matter. Delphi 7 kept displaying about 4 error messages in a row while using Find and replace. I'm sure that was one of the first bugs fixed in their usual onslaught of post release fixes. So I reverted to Delphi 6 PE which does allow updates, what I'll loose in features, I hope to gain in stability and lack of frustation.


Happy new year back! Since XMas is long gone at this point

Yes I do think love and friendship are what life is really about. I am thorougly enjoying my time with Lisa and while at times I wonder whether we are ultimately right for each other, I know that I could probably spend the rest of my life with her and be happy.

Last night I saw this funny add on SourceForge, and their punchline was SourceForge Personals, because you can't code a girlfriend . I laughed and thought how true that was, and how lucky I consider myself at the moment to have one, since I rarely seem to .

My new girlfriend is an environmental lawyer, a vegan (not a raw foodist like me though), tall, thin, fit, and beautiful. She's also kind-hearted, has a positive attitude, intelligent, get's my jokes, and loves to go jogging with me. She's 30 and I'm 24, which some people frown upon, but I don't mind, six years isn't much in the scheme of things.

Well keep your stick on the ice,
Christian Blackburn

Boy you weren't kidding this was indeed a long response .

Good for you. I should get my shit together and get a decent job too. I've been doing a little independant computer repair lately.


Security isn't exactly my favorite thing in the world, but I'm glad you've got something working and are offering a much needed service to those who want it.

Well good. It doesn't sound like something one can just install. Do you have to customize it for each user for some reason or do all your customers wind up requesting customizations which you are happy to do for a little $Moolah (classic dollar variable)?


Tell me about it, I'm dating a lawyer, I hope that doesn't mean there will be extra fine print . No seriously she seems rather content with her life, more than I am any ways. I need to get myself a stable job and back in school to be a dietician, when I see my life moving forwards in those directions then yes I too will be very content.

True, my boss from my bicycle taxi job (only during the summer, but it's fun pays well, is about 5 days and then 5 days off, I'll work 5-7 hours and make between 20-40 hour depending on luck and effort) got himself another networking job, but unlike his last one, technical support for Verizon, he has to drive all over the place installing cisco routers for some telecom company. I can't remember which . Nice guy though.


I suppose so. I hate networking and security, but I think I realize I should learn more about it. However if I had to take a hard look at my skillset and fill in holes I'd get off my ass and study database design, SQL, and ASP.NET


Boy the studying problems after work thing sounds like a pain in the ass. That's just one of the things that scares me about doing computers long-term. The other is the lack of social interaction and a less-significant (in my opinion) contribution to society. I think the biggest problem with the world today is our diet and lifestyle and I'd much rather work on our weaknesses.

So what they have a freeware version of Wise Installer or is Wise Setup a clone that is about to get sued over naming similarities?


Wow you're kidding. Unless you have to have Windows Logo certification for your program I think Inno Setup is the clear choice. They keep winning all the awards you know. Hell just today I read that NASA was using Inno Setup .


Well what percent of your users do you really think ever customize your batch install? There's absolutely no reason why you can't provide the same level of customization using a nice UI installer. That to me is the best of both worlds even techies appreciate not having to "get technical". However if you insist on using a scripting language take a look AutoIT you won't be disapointed. It's open-source an is purely an automation language. If you use MSN Messenger I'll transfer you my example. It resets the trial/installs Microangelo so it's not something I'm about to link to here .


Sounds to me like you should just pick one and become an expert. If you are going to go MSI based don't use MS's implimentation directly, because they still haven't (hopefully 3.0 will fix that) figured out that distributing a self-extracting standalone .exe with your own version info is all anybody ever wanted. The two main reasons everyone uses the Windows Installer are that if they ever get it working right the infrastructure might be great for installers and Microsoft will no longer give Windows logo certiciation to any applications that don't use the Windows installer for distribution.


I recognize JimMijo. Is he an employee or a loyal fan? I assume the latter. I have a similar arrangement with the author of Net Vampire. I test his application, give him loads of bugs and suggestions, and he always gives me a free license when a new version comes out.





So are you saying that users can change the process priority level of the application or their CPUs?


Sounds good. The alpahbetization will be good for Admins who are going to edit the file manually. Removing duplicates is always a good idea.


Doesn't it feel good after you go back into a working application and bust out a can of Error Handling? .



Well, if it's an consolation my fingers hurt after responding .

I too would like to learn/integrate HTML Help in my applications. I know Mathias another guy on my Syn Text Editor project is working on converting our help file from PDF format to HTML Help which will dramatically improve file size and the exactness of selecting help, since it'll be able to go to specific entries.


I agree that drag and drop type stuff is the bomb, and that seems to be one leg Microsoft's installer has up on the other guys, but the problem with their tool is when it comes time to integrate customizable behavior it's like rocket science. You should take a look at ISTool when you try out Inno Setup some more it not only adds 7-Zip support, but can also import .reg files or .VBPs and generate install script based on them. I think features similar imports for Delphi applications. It may be written in Delphi as well. Perhaps it's just the BDE, but that ain't bad. Since it'll make things easier .



Well I'm not really a Delphi guy. I think it's cool, I like the performance and customizability, but I still fear the complete lack of jobs for it. Part of my doing the project is that it proves to me that I can do anything like learning Pascal's difficult syntax . As for just learning to program, I've been doing that for years now since 1998 in elaborate VB-type fashion and before that as a kid with batch files and a little CA-Realizer.


I definetly fit that model. I'm very scientific in all that I do. Most of the though processes for explaining the world are scientific like the fact that I'm an atheist. I can't see believing in a more revered version of the easter bunny or Santa Claus.

I really enjoy the artistry, puzzle-solving, and creativity that goes into programming. Where the result is an interactive, animated, masterpiece.


Yes I believe weild the Win32 API schwartz well for a VB programmer. I've been studying that for about 2 years now. I frequent a VB Winapi newsgroup at News.Microsoft.VB.WinAPI. The people there really know their stuff. Sometimes it feels like half the people in the newsgroup are MVPs (Microsoft Valued Professionals, talk about swanky on your resume, I need to do whatever it takes to become one of those :)).


That is indeed a wonderful quote. . I like it since it's unattainable anyhow . I'm especially fond of the quote on the wall at 24-Hour Fitness: "Whether you think you can or you can't you're absolutely right!"

Wow I've never heard of your Remo Williams movie. I'm a movie buff so that surprises me . I'll have to check it out on IMDB. Okay the review of it sounded good enough. I added it to my Must see section, in the My Movies folder, a feature of their service.

Okay you're right I goofed on the address, but it is one you should have been able to figure out . SourceFore.net or SourceForge.net? I'm sure you already know the answer to that . http://Syn.SourceForge.net

Yes you're right that's why it's good to chit chat .


I think so. I tend to test and or observe that while running programs. Here's a link to my Visual Basic example don't worry the example is so good it only does one thing, monitors when the taskbar is re-created. It's simple enough that you won't have any trouble converting it to Delphi like I did. If you want me to send you the Delphi version I can, but there will be so much superflous code that you'd just be better of looking at the VB Code. Here's my PlanetSourceCode http://www.planet-source-code.com/vb/scripts/ShowCode.asp?txtCodeId=50753&lngWId=1 example.




No, I'm sure you can understand that hooking the correct window message is the right way to do it. Also don't be a fool like I was and hard code the window message for some idiotic (Poor quality control at MS!) reason the WM_TaskBarCreated event ID number changes from what it was in Win2K/NT to WinXP.

Trust me my way is shorter, easier, and produces a more responsive regeneration since you're "hooked" to the proper event.


Yes Europe seems to be far more Pascal based than the US. I would definetly trade Pascal for C, any day, but syntactically I still like VB the best.


I'm going to agree with you there. I think it produces the highest quality apps out there. They're fast, multi-threaded, and can do anything.


I remember 1.0 my dad bought it and at the time it was far and away better than VB 3.0.


VB is indeed technically superior to C, I just wish all the C coders would figure that out and stop giving us shortcut takers a hard time.

I would say yes it embodies some of the best of both languages, but the syntax is still ugly as hell. I find it time wasting, confusing, inconsistent, and hard to remember . That aside Delphi is rocking.

Do you own 7? I know where you can 6 PE for free?


I don't think Delphi 5 would work for me since it's missing the strings library and that has most of the functions I'm acustomed to using in VB. These are in my opinion features ubiquitous with text parsing.


I assume you are referring to the ability to turn on or off USES for a particular application? or does VCL stand for something else? Clearly it's a file type though .



Ya that's my plan for now, but part of me is like you and realizes that I'll probably have to relocate to get a decent IT job. Hell I may even move back to Seattle and work on VB as a tester or Florida and work on PowerBasic. Although PowerBasic wouldn't be a very marketable skill outside of NASA :), but who knows maybe I'm rocket scientist material after all . No seriously I'm sure I'd get better at hooking and the Win32 API which would always come in handy.




Yes that's a good joke. I'm sorry it's at your expense. I need to work harder at it and actually have a roaring 20's my 20's have been like your 30's .


Ya I already saw it. It wasn't one of my favorites to be honest, but Robin Williams always does a great job and there parts about it that I really liked, such as the humanization (if that's even a word) of the robot.


Oh that's beautiful . Promise me you'll never let any of your lady friends read your posts okay .


Agreed. No she'd probably think it was funny. Chauvenistic, but funny.


Yes it is, but I said I love you to her and she still hasn't said I love you back yet and that's hurting . Oh well I'm hoping that any day now I'll hear the same.

Nice to hear from you Alec. Make 2004 a great one .
-Christian Blackburn

Hello Everybody !!

Well, new to this board and ran across this..I see it's a few years old....so i don't know for sure if anyone even visits here anymore.

Has anyone had any "success" in an actual registry recovery? I have read both pages each post on this topic, and I only see where a "test" was done...but that seemed to be on a working machine.

I've tried everything but this 6 disk deal...Nothing w/Win2k recovery or repair console stuff worked.

fyi...I'm an "old guy" been around since DOS 2.0,and I am "stubborn" !! (laugh)

And the problem I am having is killing me... I could just go buy another drive, and make the corrupted drive a slave...but I want to beat this thing!!

Can't get into safe mode...hangs at "Preparing Network Connections)...and for a month or so before this, it kept saying "Increase your registry size"...but I never did.

Therefore, suspecting something there...as I narraowed down not a memory issue...and have tried all MS site options...except for this.

Any help would sure be appreciated..

Jim

Normally you wouldn't want to resurrect an old thread like this but rather start a new one and maybe reference this thread in your attempts to find a solution to your problems

Perhaps a mod/admin can move this to a new thread and I'm sure folks will be able to better respond to this issue.

As for myself, I can't say I've ever really tried to use REGISTRY recovery tools, usually I like to backup data I need, reformat and reinstall the OS.

So another option you may want to try is one of the FREEWARE registry apps that will attempt to remove old and orphaned entries that are no longer valid, this may or may not help.