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Registry issue

By twalsh1 ·
Hello there,

I have a friend who I tried to help out with a problem he was having with his computer. When the computer was first setup the wrong name was used to set up via Windows XP. My friend wanted me to change that name so that it was his name reflected instead of the wrong name. I went into the registry (and did not back it up) and changed all references of the bad name to my friend's name. He installed programs using his name and now when he logs on he does not have his usual interface, his email does not work correctly and he can not copy files from his computer to an external hard drive. He can move them okay but that is all. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should do? Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Side note: His internet connection was down last week and the techs at a couple of well known computer companies had him revert back to service pack 1 of Windows XP and now when you try to install service pack 2 it says it is already installed. But when you try to install Internet Explorer 7.0 it says you do not have the right service pack to install.

Help!

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OK since you have a complete Disaster here

by HAL 9000 Moderator In reply to Registry issue

Backup all of his Data you'll probably need to take ownership of it by following the directions here

http://tinyurl.com/3aw7

If they where using the Encrypted File System you'll need to save the encryption key by following the directions here

http://tinyurl.com/orpmf

Now that you have backups of the important stuff you can proceed to try to either repair the mess by trying these instructions

http://tinyurl.com/4y24g

That may work but I very much doubt it will be of any help though it's worth a try.

When the above doesn't work just make sure that you have backed up all of the data and then wipe the HDD with as wiping utility that writes zero's to every sector like Boot & Nuke available here

http://tinyurl.com/4rfur

Then after the HDD is wiped and clean reinstall the Windows OS from the Original CD and then before you do anything else install an AV Program and update it so you have the latest definitions available. If you don't have a valid AV program you can download one here

http://tinyurl.com/3cbfvx

When you have your AV Program loaded and updated you can then go to the Windows Live Update Web Site and download any available Patches or Service Packs. When everything is installed you can then set about reinstalling all of his software and updating as required. When this is finished you can then move back all of his data and then perform a AV Scan of the system in Safe Mode just to be sure that you have not imported any infections along with his data.

If you want to play with the Registry read the Instructions and Always Make a Backup before changing anything!

There is also a White Paper available on TR telling you how to change the Users Name on the Computer without doing the damage that you have done so it would be faster & easier to have downloaded the White Paper before messing with this computer but now at least you'll get the chance to set it up properly.

Col

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Thanks for the information

by twalsh1 In reply to OK since you have a compl ...

We setup a new profile and moved his my documents over to it and setup Outlook under this new profile. Norton Antivirus is working and the new profile does not seem to have any issues. We have been able to back it up to a external hard drive. By the way, what software would you recommend for me to purchase to backup his files? The software that he had encrypted everything and since he has such long file names and files it did not work very well. Getting back to the issue, he has all of his emails back and I have Windows XP set so that he can only open this one profile instead of the old one. The trick now is for us to be able to get the computer to recognize that we have Service Pack 2 installed (I noticed the updates when I was in the registry it states a service pack 3 update). When we try to install Internet Explorer 7.0 it states that we do not have the right service pack installed but when we try to install service pack 2 it states that it is already installed. The fact that he has his files, can get his emails, has internet access, and Norton is working leads me to believe that we may be able to get his computer working without having to take drastic steps. Any suggestions beyond what you have already suggested would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

T Walsh

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OK SP3 refers to Office

by HAL 9000 Moderator In reply to Thanks for the informatio ...

As that is available for both Office and Works one of which will be installed on the computer.

You can try the recovering from a Corrupted Registry option but it may be better to just log onto the Windows Live Update Site and see if you can get the system to download the parts of SP2 that are required by that particular computer it might work after all. Generally the individual computers require somewhere around 75 to 80 MEG to apply SP2 where as the complete SP2 is 266 MEG in size so it may apply some of the required files for SP2 and if it doesn't you are going to have to have a play in the Registry which is something that I never recommend to anyone where Windows is concerned as the chances of Messing it up are far too great.

Besides you don't need to install IE7 if you fully patch a XP machine with IE6 running you will have the ability to open Multiple Tabs and run that way. Granted the tabs are not so easy to close down but are really easy to open all you need do is use the Control T keys pressed together or if you are one of those who need the GUI there is a blue + Icon that you can click on and open another Tab. So what is the advantage of using IE7?

But before you do anything first make sure that you have copied all of his data over to the the new User Profile and once you are 100% certain you can delete the Old Corrupted User Account butDo Not chose to delete the User Files along with the User Account. Once you have got rid of the old User Account you can try applying SP2 again and see if it will stick. You never know what your luck will be in a big city it may even work properly.

What is the type of software being used for the File Encryption? Generally with XP all you need to do is select the master folder and copy that to an external HDD and it will copy everything in that folder and all sub folders and files. If you are using the Windows EFS it will even by default copy the data Without Encryption so you get rid of the problem of loosing all of the data.

Col

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Thanks for the great information

by twalsh1 In reply to OK SP3 refers to Office

Hi Col,

Thanks for the great information.

If you were doing backups from hard drive to external hard drive and were interested in file transfer and not encryption (being able to see the actual file on the external drive without having to use third party software) and backing up critical data such as files, emails, rules, signatures what product would you recommend? He would also be interested in scheduling the backups on a daily, weekly or monthly basis so as to ensure that he is covered if anything catastrophic occurs again.

I am thinking about reinstalling Windows XP on this machine and I want to ensure that I have all of his files (naturally) off the computer before I wipe it. Any help that you can provide would be very much appreciated. I think that is probably the only way that this thing will function at optimum efficiency.

Sincerely,

T W

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Firstly open any Window and set the Show Hidden Files to

by HAL 9000 Moderator In reply to Thanks for the great info ...

Show Hidden Files & Folders then apply the change. To do this open any window click on Tools/Folder Options/View/Show Hidden Files & Folders/Apply.

Then Open My Computer C drive,Documents & Settings, User Account Name. Here you can pickup the My Documents Folder and the Favourites Folder. In the Folder called Application Data/Microsoft/Address Book you can pickup the Address Book and then you'll have to go back to the User Account page with the My Documents & Favourites then open the Local Settings/Application Data/Identities/ A Number String/Microsoft/Outlook for Outlook E-Mail or Outlook Express for Outlook Express E-Mail.

Then look at the Software load and save the complete folders of any Accounting Software as you need to save not only the Data but the actual settings used. That should cover just about everything if all you want to do is Save Data you can automate this process with software and get it to auto run with quite a few different packages but this really depends on the situation if its a business I would recommend something like one of the backup options here

http://tinyurl.com/2ab3q4

but if it's a personal Computer you'll want something more friendly to the hip pocket something that is covered here is most likely to be a better option

http://tinyurl.com/2byr4b

or you could use something like Ghost and save an image of the complete Drive to an external HDD that way if required you could copy the Image back to the Original HDD as the Full Drive and Have a Bootable system in a very short time But I'm not sure of any way to Automate this process through there may be some Cloning Utilities available that have this option.

Col

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