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  • #2225626

    Registry: Error opening key – can’t delete it

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    by marshall1956 ·

    I have a key in the registry I can’t open or delete. I get the error message “Error opening key – Cannot open keyname: Error while opening key.”

    I have read as many posts as I can find but no help. Everyone talks about being sure you have adminstrator rights, assigning right to the key, safe mode. No one seems to have any ideas after that. I’ve tried booting into safemode, signing on my account with administrative privileges or the default adminstrator acoount. I’ve tried to assign the key Full Control and check box to replace all child objects for Administrator and All Accounts, and it works for all but the problem key, get error message: “Registry editor could not set security in the key currently selected, or some of its subkeys.”

    This all started when I tried to update Windows Media Player to version 11 so I can download and play files from my TIVO. I have version 10 and they say I have to upgrade to version 11 to play the files. In running the upgrade it always fails at the very end. The log file gives the error message as access denied on the key HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Mediaplayer\Settings\MP3encoding\lowrate. One suggestion given to me to fix it was to delete the key in question and reinstall. Well I can’t access HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Mediaplayer\Settings so there are no subkeys. I tried to open all the subkeys under HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Mediaplayer and I can open everyone except …\Settings and …\Player\CDData. I can open …\Player\Extensions.
    How do I fix or delete or rename the key in question? I’m in safe mode, I’m in the administrator account, I’ve tried to change the permissions for the parent key and give to the child key, so please don’t suggest doing that again. I can’t rename it or insert another key with the same name.
    When Mediaplayer 11 fails it resets to Mediaplayer 10 which still works, but I’m frustrated that I can’t access or change the keys in question.
    Windows XP SP2, McAfee antivirus, I’ve scanned with Spybot S&D and Adware-SE.

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    • #2618447

      Clarifications

      by marshall1956 ·

      In reply to Registry: Error opening key – can’t delete it

      Clarifications

    • #2618415

      Are you

      by rob miners ·

      In reply to Registry: Error opening key – can’t delete it

      using Regedit.exe to do this or Regedt32.exe.
      Regedt32.exe gives you a lot more control over the Registry.

      • #2619108

        regedit32

        by marshall1956 ·

        In reply to Are you

        I thought with WinXP that regedit32 went away and just have regedit now.

        • #2619099

          Did

          by rob miners ·

          In reply to regedit32

          you try it. regedt32.exe

        • #2619288

          Tried regedt32

          by marshall1956 ·

          In reply to Did

          I went to Start/Run, regedt32.
          Started regedit, the same program that runs when I run regedit: Microsoft Registry Editor v 5.1. Get the same errors.

        • #2627081

          Follow this link

          by rob miners ·

          In reply to Tried regedt32

          http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313222

          It will allow you to set the Registry Settings back to default.

          To reset the registry permissions, add this to the secedit command line:

          /areas REGKEYS

    • #2627078

      Maybe just a bad key?

      by alxcsby ·

      In reply to Registry: Error opening key – can’t delete it

      Try running a program like boostxp to root out bad registry keys and delete them. Then maybe try a reinstall.
      Just a thought, probably not the answer you’d want though.

    • #2627588

      A way to delete keys

      by bojek ·

      In reply to Registry: Error opening key – can’t delete it

      Hey, I had similiar problems with not being able to remove keys. After many reads, tries I came up with this solution:

      1. on key that gives you msg “error deleting key”, add yourself with full control to permission, apply
      2. go advanced, owner tab, check “replace owner on…”, click OK, you’ll get an error but just ignore it
      3. refresh, that will give you access to subkey
      4. now you’ll be able to able to change permissions on the subkey and eventually delete the lowest subkey

      follow these step to delete each level of keys individaully.

      I know it’s painful and lots of clicking but can be done.

      Please post reply if helped
      thanks

      • #2612997

        Re: A way to delete keys

        by pdesrivieres ·

        In reply to A way to delete keys

        I also am having the problem that several keys are corrupted and I can’t delete them. I think this is related to my computer losing power while shutting down.
        First I go into regedit/regedt32 as an admin user. When I right-click on one of the keys an select Permission… I get the message that I don’t have access to view the permissions but may change them. I give Everyone full control and hit OK but then I get an error message that I can’t save the changes to the permissions. I click Cancel and hit F5(refresh). I’m still unable to access or delete the key!

      • #2477308

        It works following your direction!!!

        by tt111r ·

        In reply to A way to delete keys

        Here is the step I use to unlock the key using regedit:
        1) right click on the problem key
        2) select Permission and click OK
        3) add yourself to Group or user names
        4) give yourself Full Control
        5) click Advance
        6) Choose Owner tab
        7) Change Owner to yourself and check the box to Replace owner … and click OK
        8) Ignore the Access denied error message
        9) click OK twice
        10 Voila, you have full access

        Tony

        • #2800585

          A big Thank You

          by sdubbs ·

          In reply to It works following your direction!!!

          I just wanted to reply letting you know that this worked for me also. I did get the access denied error trying to apply it. I had the choice to retry or cancel. I hit cancel and then ok out of the permissions area and voila — full access.

        • #3002097

          Seemed to work to delete key

          by marshall1956 ·

          In reply to It works following your direction!!!

          Following your advice I was finally able to delete the keys. I had to try it several times on each key so not sure why it didn’t work first time. On one key I had to right click key and chose exppand option and a hidden subkey opened up which I could own and delete, then I could delete the parent.

      • #2548294

        It worked!

        by jdmcguire ·

        In reply to A way to delete keys

        Dude, you rule! I followed your solution exactly and it didn’t work the first time. But I went back in and suddenly whereas I could not see any users listed in the permissions window now I could see two. A numbered account name and the SYSTEM account – I gave permissions to both and hit apply.
        I then added a couple of accounts like Administrators (local) and my own user account. I repeated the process you outlined and this time when I hit F5 and refreshed the problem key, a sub key appeared under it. I performed the same routine on that key and was able to delete the key! Thanks Man! I almost disregarded this post because it seemed illogical. Good work dude!

      • #2659104

        Wonderfull trick

        by javierx2010 ·

        In reply to A way to delete keys

        It works! Thanks!

      • #2766660

        Thank you!

        by locoulysses ·

        In reply to A way to delete keys

        I signed up for this site just to thank you. This is the only solution that works, of many, many hours of searching. This should be spread around the whole internet, and I intend to do it. Thank you again!

      • #2964278

        Would be nice but…

        by tayvl ·

        In reply to A way to delete keys

        When I choose “Permissions”, the tab contains the message “Unable to Display Security Information”. In other words, no way to edit permissions.

        • #2964261

          Either you don’t have administrator privileges

          by seanferd ·

          In reply to Would be nice but…

          or something is broken.

          Operating system & version? Which registry key?

        • #2964194

          I have administrator privileges

          by tayvl ·

          In reply to Either you don’t have administrator privileges

          Something certainly is broken.
          Windows XP Pro SP3

          HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\xxxxxxx (2 sub-keys under 2 separate keys under “CLSID”. RegSweep indicates that they both have “invalid class identifier format”. I’m suspecting it’s from a virtual device added by Magic ISO at some point, but that’s just a guess.)

          EDIT: I should have noted that only those 2 keys don’t allow me to delete. I have full permission on any other key. AND… when I click on either key I get the error message “Cannot open {xxxxxxx….xxx}: Error while opening key.”

          It’s as if one part of Windows knows it’s there and another part knows it’s not there…

        • #2964244

          It would also help

          by ic-it ·

          In reply to Would be nice but…

          if you started a new question. 😉

      • #2838943

        Hallelujah!!

        by msladyred ·

        In reply to A way to delete keys

        I backed up my registry before trying this. Even though the key was showing in regedit, when I looked at my backup, the key was not there! I tried your steps here and wowziers, it worked! I was in to the key and saw all that was there. When I again backed up my registry, the key showed up. Since this is a work computer I don’t mind saying, I was VERY concerned! Now it looks like I will have a MUCH better work day today than I did yesterday. Thanks so much!!!!

      • #2444434

        Reponse To Answer

        by rrajeshkannan ·

        In reply to A way to delete keys

        Hi, I am not the person who originally posted this issue. But, I also faced the same problem on a different key. Your solution worked for me. Thanks.

        Rajesh

    • #2612991

      have you tried exporting the registry?

      by sgt_shultz ·

      In reply to Registry: Error opening key – can’t delete it

      have you tried exporting that key or a portion of the registry with the bad part?
      or the whole thing?
      export usually will skip corrupt keys. how you get it back as the new hklm registry, i’d have to go look up at mskb.
      say, can you delete ANY keys?
      other thought–a system restore ought to put back an uncorrupted, pre mp 11 registry.
      i also had problems with mp 11. bet they fix the bug soon, maybe it’ll fix the corrupt key also.
      third thought – what if you constructed a registry snippet named same as bad key and imported it. wouldn’t that overwrite the bad key?

      • #2612967

        Re: have you tried exporting the registry?

        by pdesrivieres ·

        In reply to have you tried exporting the registry?

        I can export the registry and it does skip the corrupted keys. I get an error if I try to import the reg file. I also tried adding the corrupted key to the reg file but with the minus sign indicating it should be deleted, to no avail!

        • #2616185

          Have you tried

          by ic-it ·

          In reply to Re: have you tried exporting the registry?

          Fargogebeautiesmate’s solution above?
          Or tried one of these programs?
          Regassassin
          http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/RegASSASSIN-Download-62579.html
          RegdelNull
          http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/regdelnull.mspx

        • #2616166

          Re: Have you tried

          by pdesrivieres ·

          In reply to Have you tried

          I tried resetting permissions on the corrupted keys using secedit to no avail.
          I have tried several problems that claim to fix registry problems but they only deleted invalid(hopefully, some can cause more problems) keys that are accessible.
          I’ll try the programs you have suggested and report back.

        • #2615141

          Re: Re: Have you tried

          by pdesrivieres ·

          In reply to Re: Have you tried

          I tried RegASSASSIN 1.02. If I gave it the keyname it claimed to successfully delete the key but the key remained. If I tried to delete the accessible parent(with delete all subkeys selected) of the inaccessible key, it said it could not delete the key.

          I tried RelDelNull v1.1 but it did not find any registry keys with embedded nulls.

        • #2615136

          Safe Mode may

          by ic-it ·

          In reply to Re: Re: Have you tried

          be worth a shot. Choose with command prompt.
          At the prompt type in the regedit.exe command and try again to take over the permissions and delete the key.
          Or type explorer.exe and run the RegAssassin.

    • #2616103

      I may have missed it

      by gary56789 ·

      In reply to Registry: Error opening key – can’t delete it

      reading the above, but did you try in Safe Mode? Also, System Restore, as mentioned above often works wonders.

      • #2615164

        Re: I may have missed it

        by pdesrivieres ·

        In reply to I may have missed it

        I did not try deleting the registry keys in Safe Mode but others did to no avail.

        I have System Restore disabled as I have read that it sometimes really messes up your system when used.

        • #2616889

          Have a look here

          by rob miners ·

          In reply to Re: I may have missed it

          it may help you out.

          http://tinyurl.com/2rbyj8

        • #2459289

          Works for me fine now

          by menikalavera ·

          In reply to Have a look here

          Same problem here, registry was messed. I couldn’t register mp3 files via windows explorer and/or add/delete any other registry key. Now it’s ok thanks to this:

          secedit /configure /cfg %windir%\repair\secsetup.inf /db secsetup.sdb /verbose

          copy all this (i don’t know what it means andhow it works exactly but it’s ok) and start>run>cmd right click and paste. It takes a while but works.
          I hope it helps. Let me know

        • #2461709

          Re: Works for me fine now

          by pdesrivieres ·

          In reply to Works for me fine now

          Your suggestion resets security settings back to the defaults; see:
          http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313222

          I’ll give this a try.

        • #3040009

          Easier Solution to Delete keys

          by jaimohan ·

          In reply to Re: Works for me fine now

          I found this solution on another forum and it finally got me out of the registry mess I was in. Use the systernals psexec.exe file to grant permission to the registry editor. psexec.exe is part of the (free) systernals suite from microsoft here:

          http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb842062.aspx

          Below is an example of a batch file that I run to start registrar (rr.exe) my registry editor. You can of course use this with any registry editor including regedit.

          Start ?? ?e:\psexec\psexec.exe? -i -d -s ?c:\Program Files\Registrar Registry Manager\rr.exe?

          You can now delete any registry entry (including legacy keys).

          Btw, the Registrar Lite is a terrific (free) registry editor; among other things allowing you to search for detritus from uninstalls better & quicker than any reg cleaner. You can find it here

          http://www.resplendence.com/download/RegistrarLite.exe

          (IMHO, the free version is just as functional as the paid version, save for minimal nag screens).

          Thanks
          VJ

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