Windows 7: Force delete registry key for USB device

Here's the situation... I recently replaced two aging XP machines with a pair of brand-new machines running 7 professional x86. These machines are used on an assembly line to test USB scales that we manufacture. We test hundreds of scales each day on both machines. The issue with these machines is that the registry grows and grows and grows until the PC grinds to a halt and/or crashes. With thousands of USB devices being plugged into it each week, you can imagine how large the registry gets keeping a record of all them.

Our solution? We have a program that goes and seeks out the registry keys that are entered when one of the scales is "installed" on the system. It deletes the registry keys just for our product, so the computers won't crash.



The problem? Well, it just doesn't work under Windows 7. For whatever reason, we don't have "access" to the keys and are unable to delete them. We can't even manually-delete the keys using REGEDIT ran as an administrator. I have "taken control" of the keys, but still no dice. This is going to be a HUGE problem - like, a wipe/reload of two PCs EVERY week kind of problem if I can't figure this out. The user accounts are administrators of the system. I have *not* turned the UAC off, because I didn't think that was the problem.

Please see attached screenshots. I've tried every "fix" I can find on Google, but nothing has worked. Everything but "Need_Serial#" needs to be deleted. Currently, nothing can be deleted.

What you need is something like Steady State (a Software for libraries Internet cafes and such) Which enables you to have a fresh clean PC after every reboot.
Unfortunately Steady State isn't working on Windows 7
But Microsoft published a paper how to set up Windows 7 to resemble the workings of Steady State as close as possible:

Download details: Creating a Steady State by Using Microsoft Technologies

The other way would be to set a restore point and have your Computers go back to that point every morning (it basically restores the complete registry and shouldn't take more than say 5 mins)
Registry - Backup and Restore

Good Luck

-DG

Unfortunately neither of those options would work, we just need to bypass whatever security is disallowing us to delete those registry keys.

This might work, View any installed/connected USB device on your system
I haven't tried it myself. It was posted in another similar thread and I book marked it with the intension of giving it a look see later.

Hi Chris - Say, did you ever find a solution to this problem?
We're facing just the same here and I would be extremely grateful for any hint...
(same name at the gmail)
Thanks heaps and good luck!