Restoring Default Windows XP Registry

[Lea Hwang]

How can I restore factory-default Window-XP registry? I have made some
registry changes and wanted to back off from these changes. I did not save
the original setting.

 

[John John - MVP]

Use System Restore and roll back the machine to a date just before you
made the changes.

John

 

[Ron Badour]

Will system restore get you far enough back in time to undo the changes?

--
Regards

Ron Badour
MS MVP
Windows Desktop Experience

 

[Leonard Grey]

The only way to get a default registry is to reinstall Windows. However,
if you made unwanted changes to your registry recently, you can restore
a restore point from that date.

 

[John John - MVP]

He could simply replace the hives at C:\WINDOWS\system32\config with the
corresponding ones at C:\WINDOWS\repair, this will bring the registry to
the "as installed" state. Of course after doing this almost nothing
will work on the computer...

John

 

[db]

there is a copy of the default
registry hive safely kept in a
system folder.

it is used to fall back on when
a registry becomes corrupted
and windows can't load.

however, keep in mind that the
default registry will not have any
registry keys pertaining to any
software loaded in windows.

so even though you may have
program files on the disk,

they will not function anymore
until you reinstall them.

another option available is to
perform a repair installation with
a windows setup cd.

what it will do is to replace
missing or corrupted system
files in the system partition
with genuine ones from the
cd.

if the repair installation fails,
then skip the idea with the
default registry because the
problem involves something
greater than the registry hive.
--

db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
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~~~~~~~~~~"share the nirvana" - dbZen