Registry Entry won't delete.

bern · Joined: Mar 12, 2007 Posts: 1487 Location: ann arbor

I recently had occasion to update the firmware on a piece of audio gear. The new firmware was to be loaded onto the device via USB from the computer. The USB driver installation apparently failed. (The USB driver talks to the audio gear and provides the interface for the firmware loading program). The computer never recognized the audio gear. The instructions said that if this should happen delete certain registry entries (relating to the audio gear) and start over. Well, when attempting to erase the entries, I got a message saying "Cannot delete XXXXXXX. Error deleting key". I tried going to the restore created at that time, and it too failed.

I tried the installation a different computer, and everything went well, so the process is not fatally flawed.

WinXP SP3
dual core
2 gig, etc

Computer runs fine, but why can't I delete Registry entries, and what can I do about it?

mommabear · Joined: Feb 20, 2003 Posts: 6325

Since you can't restore and can't seem to use regedit, there might be some malware problems going on, even though things seem fine now. Just a thought.

Have you tried deleting any other entries not related to the USB or audio gear just to see if you still get the error? Back it up first so it can be restored, if you are able to delete it.

These tools from Doug Knox are designed specifically for people who've got virus problems. But even if you don't, the regedit tool may get you past whatever is keeping you from editing those keys, until you can figure out what is wrong.

Quote:

xp_emegencyutil.exe - Creates usable copies of REGEDIT, MSCONFIG and Task Manager
v1.2 - 07/26/2004
© Doug Knox

This small VB 6 utility will create a usable backup copy of Taskmgr.exe, MSConfig.exe and Regedit.EXE in a new folder, called C:\EmergencyUtils. The new copies will be named Copy_of_Taskmgr.exe, Copy_of_MSConfig.exe and Copy_of_Regedit.com.

These programs are extremely helpful, and usually necessary in helping to rid your computer of a viral infection. Many virus programs will intercept these programs, based on their original file name, and prevent them from running. The alternate copies will not encounter this problem. Simply navigate to the C:\EmergencyUtils folder and double click the file you need to run.

To use: Download the xp_emergencyutil.zip file and save it to your hard drive. Double-click the xp_emergencyutil.zip file and extract xp_emergencyutil.exe to your hard disk. To run the EXE just double click it, there is no installer. You will have the option of running the programs automatically, after the copies are created.

NOTE: Your antivirus software may warn of a potentially malicious script. This is normal, as the Windows Scripting Host is used to create the "copies" of these 3 utilities.

Operating Systems: Windows® XP and Windows® Server 2003 only. Requires VB 6 Runtime Libraries, included in Windows® XP.

http://dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_emerutils.htm

bern · Joined: Mar 12, 2007 Posts: 1487 Location: ann arbor

Dee101 · Joined: Dec 09, 2007 Posts: 39

Just confirming, that I have occasionally run into this on XP Home and XP Media Center Edition. I have not seen it on XPPro.

Every incident I've seen was related to a key that touched either a device or a service (I've seen it several times with anti-virus software and a couple times with SaaS offerings). Other keys seemed to work fine. Unfortunately, when it involved a service, this usually precluded reinstalling the software as well.

In each case, there was no malware on the machine -- the only common link was XPHome/Media Center. Because of that, I am wondering if it may have to do with differences in the installer that have occurred over the course of XP history -- there were several glitches with the Windows Installer updates a few years ago and it has only occurred since that time. On each machine where I've seen this, bad installer updates required some serious repair time.

I've even tried a few of the command line utililties to remove these, but no luck thus far.

bern · Joined: Mar 12, 2007 Posts: 1487 Location: ann arbor

Dee101 · Joined: Dec 09, 2007 Posts: 39

Did you buy it with SP3, or is it upgraded to that. This happened after SP2, about 15 months ago on the machines in question and has plagued certain installs/etc. since. I forgot to mention, but it has caused problems with U3 drives...but we can use thumbdrives without U3 fine.

goretsky

Hello,

Try running the Registry Editor (filename: REGEDIT.EXE) going to the key containing the entries you were told to delete and exporting it to make a backup copy. Now right-clicking on it and selecting Permissions from the popup context menu. In the Permissions window, make sure you have Full-Control of the key, then try deleting it.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

bern · Joined: Mar 12, 2007 Posts: 1487 Location: ann arbor

Dee101 · Joined: Dec 09, 2007 Posts: 39

You're right -- that fixes it some of the time. XPHome/Media Center both had a way of setting permissions to RW on a strange assortment of registry keys. Just don't reset permissions on keys you don't need to change -- it also helps keep malware from making registry changes.