Scanreg and Regedit Questions

Question

Scanreg and Regedit Questions   Question 1. I've been studying the usage of scanreg.exe and the description of its switches. Consider clicking on Start, Run and typing Scanreg /Restore in the box and clicking OK. The description of the /Restore switch that I have read says: Displays a list of available backup files, sorted by the date and time the backup was created. However, I get no prompts which was expected. I see only a quick flash of gray screen. Does anyone know why?   Question 2: I've also been studying the usage of regedit. Consider clicking on Start, Run and typing Regedit in the box and clicking OK to see the Registry. Suppose one Exports the entire registry before making changes; starts making changes, additions and deletions; and then decides the changes were a mistake. Does Importing the previously Exported Registry file replace the messed up registry or just add to it?

Denny Denham · Answer

raggtopp,

In order to restore a saved copy of the registry in ME you must perform the procedure in DOS. See the instructions here.

Restoring a saved copy of the registry in the event errors were made when making modifications replaces the registry rather than adding to it. See this. As a rule, it is safer to simply export a single registry key before you edit its contents. Save the resulting *.reg file with an easily remembered name then if the changes made do not produce the desired result, either right-click the saved *.reg file and select "Merge" from the context menu or double-click the file to install it. It is prudent to make registry changes one at a time rather than as a group of simultaneous edits.

BRIANBORU · Answer

Changes to the Registry Checker Tool (Scanreg.exe) in Windows Me

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;273889

"The Registry Checker tool (Scanreg.exe) in Windows Millennium Edition (Me) has been updated to support all of its operations from within Windows.
The following command-line options are supported in Windows or by booting to Safe mode: scanreg /restore, scanreg /fix, scanreg /opt."

raggtopp · Answer

My thanks to Denny Denham and BrianBoru for their replies. I've read and printed their references.

Re: My Question 1 and scanreg: I am beginning to think that either there is a command line switch that I don't know about; or I don't have all the files associated with my scanreg.exe when I try to execute it at either the MSDOS prompt or the Windows Run Command Line boxt. Again, when I executed scanreg.exe/restore, I expected a display of available backup files, sorted by the date and time the backup was created. I saw nothing but a blink.

I have seen different articles which discuss eight command line switches for scanreg.exe . This includes the /? command line switch. When I use /? in my case to display options, I get a screen display of only five which includes the /? command line switch.

When I search my files and folders for scanreg, I find only two files: scanreg.exe and scanreg.ini. I did find the article "Windows Registry Checker and Related Tools" which mentions the file SCANREG.ZIP. The article was found at http://geocities.com/joeyr76/scanreg.html?20051. The article says: The file SCANREG.ZIP contains a self-installing file called SCANREG.EXE . It will place the following files on your system:

C:\SCANAUTO.REG -this file is automatically run when the extraction is complete, so Registry checker may scan/backup the registry at each boot
C\WINDOWS\SCANREGW.EXE-the Windows Executable for Registry Checker
C:\WINDOWS\SCANREG.INI-the configuration file for Windows registry Checker
C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\SCANREG.EXE-the DOS mode version of Registry checker, useful for checking and restoring corrupt registry files

Note there are four files where I have only two. Perhaps one could search there computer for scanreg and see if they have four or two or more files. Does anyone have any new thoughts after reading this?

BRIANBORU · Answer

just type scanreg /restore, note the space between the g and the forward slash (always). some believe those switches will work without the space , but not on mine. i get 5 switches too.  don't do the restore switch,unless you need . test first ,use the opt switch and you wil only see it scan with no result, on scanreg /fix ,you might see a dos box, and then a box saying u must reboot to do it, you can opt out at that point.   let me know . there should have been a scanreg.exe in windows/command. if not it can be replaced.

raggtopp · Answer

Denny Denham and BrianBoru: More Details

When I search for scanreg.exe, it occurs at two places: C:\Windows\scanreg.exe and C:\windows\options\cabs. When I execute using the path to either one and use scanreg.exe /opt or scanreg.exe /?, I still see only the box displaying the options. At the very top, it says scan finished. Nothing new is revealed to me as a result of this activity.

I printed my scanreg.ini file. Entries seem OK according to defaults. I did notice the line: ScanregVersion=0.0001. When I searched on the backup directory, sbckup, which is mentioned, I found that it had one system file with modied date of 06/08/2000; and five rb00x.cab files with modified dates from 11/24/04 to 12/05/04. These must have been the last backups before something went awry with scanreg.exe. It was around December 7 that I became concerned about virus, trojan, spyware and hijack things and began to study, learn and remove the bad things per recommendations in the Dell forums and many other forums. After resolving several issues, I new that there needed to be routine backups made for the Registry. That is when I began to study and learn about scanreg.exe and to recognize that something was not quite right.

Is running scanreg.exe supposed to be independent of my Registry entries? For my own information I used Bill James RegSrch.vbs to search my registry for scanreg and found these four hive/key results:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\MSInfo\Tools\ScanReg]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\MSInfo\Tools\ScanReg]
"command"="scanregw.exe"
[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RunMRU]
"a"="scanreg /fix\\1"
[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RunMRU]
"b"="scanreg / opt\\1"

I don't know at this point if these are corrupt or not. I do see the entry of scanregw.exe and I do not have that routine. If I examine the Registry directly using Regedit, Find and Find Next, I would find two more hive/key entries similar to the HKU, except they would begin as HKEY_CURRENT_USERS\software and so on.

Does anybody have any new comment?

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Scanreg and Regedit Questions

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