W2K3 - Can not remove corrupt registry key.

[Gino Castoldi_2]

Hi,

We are trying to remove one registry key.
However when we try to either open or remove the key it generates these errors:
"Error Opening Key" "Cannot open ITO: Error while opening key." "Error Deleting Key" "Cannot delete ITO: Error while deleting key."

Is there a way to remove this entry?

10 points to any good answer.
Thank you
Gino

[Igor Karasik · Accepted solution]

Gino,
probably it is permission issue.
Select problematic key, right-click and select permissions. Go to Advanced->
owner tab (you may notice that the 'current owner of this
item' indicates "Unable to display current owner")
Try to change owner to administrator and add full control permissions to administrator. Reboot and try to delete key again.

[Jay Bollyn]

Hey Gino,

As Igor suggested, you could go the permissions / ownership route, but your error msgs do not sound like 'permissions' to me.

There have been several times (in my experience) when software apps / installation programs have written to the registry is such a way that those keys cannot be removed by windows. You would need the advice of a windows programmer, which I am not. I am a LAN admin.

Is this key causing any problems for the user, or are you just trying to remove it to see if it can be done?

If there are no problems from the user perspective, I would just ignore it. Windows is far from perfect. (So is *nix.)

Regarding 'good answers', if this were my question, I would assign Igor and me 10 points each, because we both tried to help.

(Just my suggestion.)

- Jay

[raadek]

If Igor's hint doesn't help then you may try some tools for registry maintenance, e.g. CCleaner: http://www.ccleaner.com/

Or anti-spyware programs which should be able to remove 'unremovable' keys, e.g. Ad-Aware ( http://www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/ but I am not sure if it works on W2K3) or something similar.

Rgds.

[Sheldon Smith]

(and from the SysInternals forum http://www.sysinternals.com/Forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4021&PN=4 )

"You could try these 2 Excellent Apps that i use, maybe in Safe Mode. Disable System Restore until afterwards -

RegSeeker 1.45:

RegSeeker is a perfect companion for your Windows registry !
RegSeeker includes a powerful registry cleaner and can display various informations like your startup entries, several histories (even index.dat files), installed applications and much more ! With RegSeeker you can search for any item inside your registry, export/delete the results, open them in the registry. RegSeeker also includes a tweaks panel to optimize your OS ! Now RegSeeker includes a file tool to search for duplicate files, bad shortcuts and more !

RegSeeker is FREE for personal use only ! - http://www.hoverdesk.net/freeware.htm

Eusing Free Registry Cleaner 1.0

Eusing Free Registry Cleaner is a free registry repair software that allows you to safely clean and repair registry problems with a few simple mouse clicks.The Windows Registry is a crucial part of your PC's operation system.

Free Registry Cleaner is a freeware product, this means that you can download and use it for free. Anyway we will appreciate contributions: we will use collected money to finance new development of Free Registry Cleaner. Without your support,perhaps we can't keep adding new features. Thanks for your help.

http://www.eusing.com/free_registry_cleaner/registry_cleaner.htm

[Chris Pac]

Easy -think outside the box! hehe

remove the hdd from puter #1 and plug it into puter #2
retain the original #2 hdd with the os as boot drive etc on #2 and boot #2 like normal | fire up regedit | import the corrupt registry from the moved hdd | work your magic on the corrupted registry | export it back | turn off #2 | remove the hdd and reinstall in #1 | snjoy

easiest 10 points ever :)

I fixed my laptop using a usb enclosure in about 10 mins

[Vibhor Kumar Agarwal]

Sometimes this is not possible via GUI.

Write a .reg file and put a - (minus) infront of that key.

Then import that file.
The - means to delete that key.