Tweaking the Registry when Vista is down

[Samuel Marin]

Hi.

A friend of mine has his Vista PC automatically installing an update,
then reboots with no prompt before login any user. And that's looped
forever. What's strange is it does the same in safe mode.
At present no session can be opened, nor even reached. Nothing seems to
be possible.

I'm thinking I could alter/delete the RunOnce entry in the registry but
I would either need

- an XP tool that can read a Vista registry from a file on a separate HD
(yes, I would take the HD to my PC)

- or a Linux live CD tool (but I'm asking this question on a Linux
forum) that could do the same

- or of course any other brilliant idea.

Does anybody think of something?

Thanks.

P.S.: You obviously see that formatting the HD will be the very last
option as my friend has made a mess of his files on the HD and it would
be a nightmare to save it all on DVD.

 

[Samuel Marin]

Hi, SIW2,

This just looks like a dream. I've downloaded and burnt. I'll test asap
and post back the results.
Thanks a lot!

Sam.

SIW2 a écrit :

 

[Samuel Marin]

Well, I've tried the live CD on my PC, just to check. It is exactely
what I wanted but one point : I'm supposed to select a file.
I've searched the net to no avail. Google was not my friend this time.
Damn. Where is the registry?
Thanks.
Sam

Samuel Marin a écrit :

 

[AJR]

Samuel - have you consider booting from hte Vista dvd and using startup
repair option?

 

[Samuel Marin]

Dear. The program and location were just fine, but it didn't do the trick.
I believe Windows Update does not write in the RunOnce folder. Does
anyone know better?

Thanks again.
Sam


SIW2 a écrit :

 

[Samuel Marin]

I'm not too much acquainted with Vista. I've only tried the system for
some time but I'm still fan of my XP. However my friend has only got a
recovery partition (no DVD) and I feared we would have too few options
(reinstall / format) for that. And it's obviously too late to build a
DVD out of the recovery partition.
If I can get hold of a Vista DVD, do you reckon I could repair with
minimum damage? The idea is not to reinstall most programmes and
personal data.

Thanks.
Sam

AJR a écrit :