There is something wrong with your system. Despite the post that tells you
(inaccurately) that you are a gormless bint (whatever the heck that is)
regedit.exe is the real deal. In Windows 2000 you had both, and they had
different functions and interfaces. In WinXP and above regedt32.exe just
starts up regedit.exe. I have NO idea why you were seeing that error message.
But I'm not surprised when I see weird stuff like this on systems that have
been upgraded. A clean installation Vista is best if there's any way for you
to do it.
How were you trying to start regedit -- by using a shortcut or by using the
Start | Run dialog or by using the start menu search function? By default
regedt32.exe (9 kilobytes so, no, it's not the real registry editor) resides
under the system32 directory. The regedit.exe file resides under the Windows
directory. Either should be in your path, so you should be able to bring up
the registry editor application by using either name. If you can't there's
something wrong with your system configuration.
Why regedt32.exe would work for you but regedit.exe wouldn't work for you is
a matter of real curiosity.
