Registry settings disappear on reboot

[Paul Cuthbert]

I have the same problem as some others I have read on this newsgroup, but it
is not clear what the answer is.

With MinLogon, no EWF if you make registry changes with regedit they work
until you reboot when they are lost i.e. the registry entries are not saved.

I found one post that said:

You have to use "xpepm" to shutdown or restart your computer with MinLogon
to save yours registry changes, or flush your registry with an API function.

I am not sure what flush the registry means. Can you tell me what is the
workaround for this is?

Thanks

Best regards

Paul Cuthbert

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Are you sure that you don't have EWF in you image?
If you are then this becomes a new issue with XPe. What service pack do you
have? Also how current QFE updates do you have?
Use "shutdown.exe" or "fba -reboot" instead of "xpepm."

Regards,
Slobodan

 

[Paul Cuthbert]

Absolutely definitely don't have EWF in the image. I have SP1, I am not sure
I am completely up to date with QFE's.

I have added xpepm to my image and if you restart with this then it saves
the settings.

If this is a problem with XPe what does xpepm do when you restart as
whatever it does then it solves the problem.

Regards

Paul

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

BTW: How did you rebooted your device before you started to use xpepm?

Here is some way how you can reboot you device in high to low probability of
data loss:

1. Reset button.
2. xpepm, fba
3. shutdown or trough GUI.

Regards,
Slobodan

 

[Paul Cuthbert]

Reset button. It's minlogon with no gui. Looks like xpepm is the best way
but that doesn't explain what is happening.

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

If it is reset button then it explain something.

registry was not flushed to disk. (Although I don't know when it happens on
it's own)
Something must tell OS to write all changes from cache to disk, before you
do hard reset.

This is not exact explanation, but one is probably not necessary since you
SHOULD NOT REBOOT your device forcefully without active EWF.

Regards,
Slobodan

 

[KM]

Paul,

You won't probaly end up doing this on your final target but just to find
out where the problem is you can call RegFlushKey(all root keys) API
(advapi32.dll) just before you press reset button (only wait until the
function calls are done and return). With the function calls do you still
see the registry losses?

 

[Paul Cuthbert]

Hi KM

Thanks for the input. I'll test this over the weekend and post on Monday.

Paul

 

[Troy Shaw[MS]]

Hitting the reset button (without EWF involved) will cause other types of
corruption besides loss of registry keys. It is not a good thing to do.