Registry edit question

[tony6264]

I have a laptop running windows xp and I must have accidentitly started to to install a program and it did not go...long story....now everytime I start up the computer I get an error message relating to this program...my question is...how do I go about editing this entry from the registry.

[rkawakami]

Tough question to answer. First thing: be very careful what you do! It's easy to delete a key by accident and there's no Undo using regedit. I believe that there's some utility programs which do offer safer alternatives to regedit, but I have not personally used them. You can export your entire registry as a safeguard and also take a System Restore snapshot.

If you have already tried going through the uninstall process (or it's not available from either the Start menu or the Control Panel), sometimes re-installing the entire program and then removing it will work.

Generally you can find where the install program has put its stuff by using regedit's Edit/Find option and entering either the program name or manufacturer. Highlight each key or branch and simply delete them (I think the Delete key works for this; otherwise Edit/Del from the menu). I think most programs will place their information under a branch of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\manufacturer name portion of the registry.

You can also use the "msconfig" program and look at the Startup tab to see what launches at system start up, if that's where the problem is (in addition to checking the Startup folder under the Start menu).

The other option is to rollback the registry using the System Restore utility.

[Wiz]

What does the error message say? It would be easier to suggest something if we know what the error says. Maybe it's easy to fix and maybe not.

[Harryc]

Try restoring to a point before the uninstall using 'system restore'.

Edit: Oops - Ray beat me to it.

[tony6264]

Right after I posted this message, it occured to me that i had not tried system restore...i never use it.....I was able to get the problem taken care of...so you can lock this thread please.
thanks all who responded.

[rkawakami]

System Restore has saved my bacon a couple of times . I almost forgot to mention that in my previous post (I suggested using it to take a current snapshot in case something went wrong but didn't think about "restore" until I posted the message, duh!).

In addition, an old program call GoBack (now part of Symantec, I believe) which is installed on my Windows 98 Gateway desktop has also been very useful for disaster recovery. That program monitors all file system changes (by default) so it can recover accidentally deleted files, as well as registry changes. Has worked quite well to remove a couple of viruses that my kids had downloaded.

[tony6264]

Isn't that always the way it goes...one of the few things Microsoft does RIGHT...you never think of..I have used restore in the past....a long ...long time ago, and I will bet I have beat my head against the wall several times since and not used it when it most likely would have solved my problem.