eruNT lives again, on Win7/Vista -- without 'Scheduled Task' UAC-hack

This isn't a request for help, but just thanks for all the good advice I've received here.

This (widely acclaimed) Windows Registry backup utility restores the security feature Microsoft discontinued with Windows 98SE and Windows ME: the ability to retain full daily automatic backups of a user-determined number of registries, as the first (and it should not be the only) line of defense in recovering a 'hosed' system, from registry corruption.

Starting with Windows Vista, there has been a compatiblity problem, as noted by Lars Hederer, the utility's author:

Question: Do ERUNT and NTREGOPT run on Windows 7?
Answer: ERUNT and NTREGOPT in their current versions 1.1j are still compatible with Windows 7, but as in Vista, they will only work correctly if you turn off User Account Control in Windows' Control Panel (move the slider to the lowest position).
...
Future versions of ERUNT and NTREGOPT will of course have these issues fixed. Keep an eye on my homepage for updates.

Unfortunately, there have been no "future versions", so users have devised work-arounds, the best known being creating a scheduled-shortcut to the .exe that runs the daily backup, to prevent it from 'hanging' and failing, when Windows' silent prompt (are you sure you really want to run this .exe file, that you just clicked on?) gets no human response. Many users are reluctant to take the author's advice, to just shut off UAC, although this does fix it.

I (hope!) I have found a simpler solution, suitable even for the non-hacker.

Install and run this small (85KB) utility, to put UAC in the 'Quiet Mode' -- as shown in the illustration. You should have a Windows Shortcut for eruNT's autoback.exe in the StartUp directory. First, set MS Windows' UAC slider wherever you wish. Then turn on 'Quiet Mode' in the linked utility. Then exit, and don't look again at the UAC slider, as a Windows-bug makes it show an erroneous indication (carefully read the utility's documentation on this point).

Just make sure that the shortcut to autoback.exe is set to run its target in Administrative mode, and then set the Target-line as:

Code:

 
"C:\Program Files\ERUNT\AUTOBACK.EXE" "C:\Users\[your account's username here]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Last 4 Registries (RUN erdNT.exe)"\#Date# /noconfirmdelete /noprogresswindow /days:4

and this will put your backups into a StartMenu entry, previously prepared by installing a directory where indicated by the above path, with the name of 'Last 4 Registries (RUN erdNT.exe)'. This will remind the user what to do, when the backup directory is opened, as the .exe of that name will appear there.

To make sure there were no mistakes, check your Start Menu directory after a few days. You should see the daily backups accumulating there. That's all.

I am purposely using the terms 'hack' and 'hacker' as originally defined. Please do not read 'hacker' as 'cracker'. I think all at this forum need not be told these are two very different things.

P.S.: Thanks to Brink for his help in other ways of doing this, before I discovered the 'silent UAC' utility.

Have you used ERUNTgui with ERUNT. It has worked for me to backup. I have not restored with it. What I done is installed ERUNT to a data disk and then installed ERUNTgui in a sub directory. I am curious if you have used it and your observation.

ron,
SystemRestore works quite fine and more than adequate.

did you know that Win 7 creates a system restore automatically before every update? creates a system restore point automatically.that you can create a system restore point anytime you wish that you can put such creation as a task into task scheduler?

why would I want to change anything when win comes with all of the tools I need?

Suggest you try:
Win | type system restore point | enter | Next| checkmark Show more restorepoints

you can also
WIN | type Task Scheduler | Enter
Double-click on SR and investigate the various tabs

I've also happily used ERUNT for years, but have had mixed success when running it on anything newer than XP. So I'm planning on testing out RegBak. However, ral77's download link is no longer valid. So here are two currently working links:

1) From the developer: http://www.acelogix.com/download.html#downrb
The description says "License: Free to try, USD 19.95 to buy."
However, immediately above this entry is a header saying:

Freeware
You can use these software for free.

(So maybe it used to be shareware, now it's freeware, but they forgot to edit the description?)

2) From my favorite freeware/shareware source: http://www.snapfiles.com/get/regbak.html
SnapFiles lists this as freeware.


RegBak creates multiple entries and subfolders (a lot more than ERUNT, which may or may not be a good thing). I've only run the program once (only to back up, not restore), so I really can't report on how well it works. If my experience with ERUNT is any indication, it may be awhile before I can definitively say how good or bad it is, since such a thing will normally happen when I need to revert to a previous registry, and discover that the program does (or doesn't) do what it claims. However, in the meantime, I plan to test out the program with multiple runs (on a regular schedule as well as prior to the installation of any new program), since the only downside to running the backup portion is a bit of time and space.

This program does seem promising: Its help file looks quite informative, and the program has many ease of use options that are more extensive than ERUNT has. You can download either an installer or portable version (developer shows both versions, SnapFiles only shows the portable). So hopefully this will be the ERUNT replacement I was looking for!

Since the post previous to mine was more than 4 years ago, if anyone has been using RegBak for awhile and can report on how well (or poorly) it has worked for them, such info would be greatly appreciated!

NOTE: Don't confuse this program with RegBack (note the extra "c"). RegBack is a folder within Windows\System32\config that (from what I've read) is part of Windows' own method of saving data for System Restore Points. Searching for "Regbak" in Google (without using Google's 'Verbatim' option) will display results for both the program and the folder, which can be confusing if you don't know about the difference.

Yes, Regbak is excellent.