"Everyone" Has Full Software Permissions; "Admin" Doesn't

[Guest]

I discovered by right-clicking on the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software registry
key that the user Everyone has full permissions and the user Admin, who is
supposed to have full permissions, doesn't. I attempted a fix reducing the
user Everyone to read only permissions and giving Admin full permissions.
Too late I realized that I had effectively sabotaged most of my operating
system. It was only with the aid of Safe Mode and a recently installed
registry restore program EruNT that I was able to get back the use of my
Windows XP Home because System Restore wouldn't work, the last registry that
worked wouldn't, and the entire Windows taskbar including the start button
was permanently hidden and couldn't be restored by right-clicking on it and
fiddling with properties, which had always worked before. I would assume
that there's a way to let Admin inherit all of Everyone's permissions, after
which Everyone's permissions can safely be reduced to read only. I would
appreciate a little help with Admin's inheritance. Finally, I cannot praise
highly enough Lars Hederer's freeware-donationware EruNT Registry Backup and
Restore program which is available at:
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/

 

[Guest]

I apologize if I've broken some rule by actually asking for help before I
know if I've got the right newsgroup. Please inform me if I need to address
this issue to another XP newsgroup. I continue to discover problems with my
XP registry. I right-clicked and checked the permissions of
HKEY_CURRENT_USER using Regedit.exe and Everyone was the only user or group
present. I added the pre-existing administrator user Admin, issued it full
permissions, and reduced the permissions of Everyone to read only. After
reboot I encountered the following error message immediately after signing in
as Admin, "Windows cannot allow you access to your usual XP operating system.
You will be allowed into the default XP operating system however." This is
not an exact quote. But the default registry which I booted into was Admin's
usual registry down to the name Admin at the top of the Start Menu. Even so,
I immediately restored Everyone's full permissions and on reboot got back in
without the error. I really need to know what security problems I am letting
myself in for if I don't find a way to replace Everyone with the
administrator user Admin and leave Everyone as an administrator with full
permissions. At the minimum, could someone please direct me to a source of
helpful information about Windows XP and its registry permissions? Thanks in
advance for any response anyone has the time to make.
--
Please respond to the group and also directly to me after removing the x''s
from my email address below.
Max Heisenberg
(e-mail address removed)