Solved Registry Key deletion - Home Premium & Ultimate are different

[rfdes]

I have two computers, a laptop with Home Premium and a desktop with Ultimate. I'm setup as admin on both and installed an application on both that I ended up removing. There were a couple of registry keys that are giving me 'fits' and need removing. I am struggling to get these keys removed.

Using Regedit, I have no issues removing the keys on the Ultimate desktop machine. However, I get the typical error message "Access Denied" message on the Home Premium laptop. Of course I've made sure that my permissions are set to OWNER, etc. but still no luck.

Would this imply that I have a GROUP POLICY issue between the two machines? I understand that some of the differences between the Home Premium and the Ultimate versions of Win 7 are related to GROUP POLICY. Does anyone have any thoughts that would help with this problem. I've heard that it is possible to copy the group policy from one machine to another. Is this possible and if so, how?

Any help would be appreciated.
thanks
Jim

 

[Sir George]

I have two computers, a laptop with Home Premium and a desktop with Ultimate. I'm setup as admin on both and installed an application on both that I ended up removing. There were a couple of registry keys that are giving me 'fits' and need removing. I am struggling to get these keys removed.

Using Regedit, I have no issues removing the keys on the Ultimate desktop machine. However, I get the typical error message "Access Denied" message on the Home Premium laptop. Of course I've made sure that my permissions are set to OWNER, etc. but still no luck.

Would this imply that I have a GROUP POLICY issue between the two machines? I understand that some of the differences between the Home Premium and the Ultimate versions of Win 7 are related to GROUP POLICY. Does anyone have any thoughts that would help with this problem. I've heard that it is possible to copy the group policy from one machine to another. Is this possible and if so, how?

Any help would be appreciated.
thanks
Jim

You can seize ownership of any registry key;
Right-click the key, click Permissions, click Advanced.
Then set any permission you need.

However, there are two restrictions:
- You cannot do this in bulk.
- In nested keys you must frequently set ownership from inside out. Doing it on the main key only may fail.

I don't use Group Policy, so I have no answer for that part of your question.

HTH

 

[rfdes]

Thanks for the response. As far as permissions, I have set the permissions as you mentioned. In fact I set myself as the OWNER but still get the access denied message. There is something that I am missing and am definitely confused.

Jim

 

[Sir George]

Thanks for the response. As far as permissions, I have set the permissions as you mentioned. In fact I set myself as the OWNER but still get the access denied message. There is something that I am missing and am definitely confused.

Jim

Give this a try;

psexec -i -d -s c:\windows\regedit.exe

psexec is available from Microsoft here
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897553.aspx

This should give you full access to the registry; definitely be careful with this sort of access.

 

[rfdes]

Hi, Sir George -
I tried your suggestion, but when attempting to run the service I get the error message:
Couldn't install PsExec Service:
Access Denied

Boy, very frustrating, one problem turns into another...

I appreciate the response.
Jim

 

[Layback Bear]

Use at you own risk. Search Everything.
Everything Search Engine

 

[Sir George]

Hi, Sir George -
I tried your suggestion, but when attempting to run the service I get the error message:
Couldn't install PsExec Service:
Access Denied

Boy, very frustrating, one problem turns into another...

I appreciate the response.
Jim

The downloaded file is in a "zip" format. Extract the contents to a folder of your choice, then make a note of the file path, you will need it to run the executable.

Next open an elevated command prompt;

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/783-elevated-command-prompt.html

The results should appear as in the attachment, assuming you extract the contents to your desktop. The last line in the attachment is the one I provided in my other post, which is;

psexec -i -d -s c:\windows\regedit.exe

 

[rfdes]

Thanks for sticking with me on this...

I took your advise and this time I was successful in getting PEexec to run as you suggested. Again, I cannot delete one of the keys that is giving me the problem. I get an error message regarding a 'FILE' not being found?? Here are some snapshots of what I have experienced: thanks gain for your help...

 

[Sir George]

Thanks for sticking with me on this...

I took your advise and this time I was successful in getting PEexec to run as you suggested. Again, I cannot delete one of the keys that is giving me the problem. I get an error message regarding a 'FILE' not being found?? Here are some snapshots of what I have experienced: thanks gain for your help...

This is a "best guess" on my part; try rebooting and see if the entry is still present.

If that doesn't work, I have another suggestion to try afterwards.

Let me know.

 

[rfdes]

Well -
I did some more reading and it turns out that the key has some embedded null characters. SysInternals has a tool called RegDelNull.exe which did the trick. Seems so easy when all is said. Boy, what a pain. I don't understand why you cannot del a key with embedded nulls but evidently so. If you have any further knowledge I would be most grateful.

thanks
Jiim

 

[Sir George]

Well -
I did some more reading and it turns out that the key has some embedded null characters. SysInternals has a tool called RegDelNull.exe which did the trick. Seems so easy when all is said. Boy, what a pain. I don't understand why you cannot del a key with embedded nulls but evidently so. If you have any further knowledge I would be most grateful.

thanks
Jiim

Nothing else I can contribute at this time. Glad you got it resolved. That's not to say I don't have further knowledge, but just not on this subject.