I screwed over the registry and wifi stopped working- help a newb out?

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  1. 10ftcoke
    Posts : 3
    windows 7 ultimate 32 bit
       New #1

    I screwed over the registry and wifi stopped working- help a newb out?


    I was playing around with the registry deleting what I though to be useless stuff and being the silly man I am, I somehow disabled the wifi. I did not backup my registry and I have no system restores to return to because I disabled that service.

    I can connect to a router on windows 7 wifi in that the router will detect an incorrect network password, but it always says limited access under the wifi icon. I cannot log in to the router to change the router's settings when i put 192.168.1.1 in a web browser. Otherwise there is no wifi functionality

    I know this problem is isolated to my windows os because when i boot on ubuntu (which I am on now) I can get wifi.
    I tried reinstalling the wifi card but that did not work.

    Any ideas what I should try next?

    I still have my windows 7 disc but my disc drive broke like 8 months ago... I'm probably going to have to end up buying another one

    If I system repair from the windows disc, will it still preserve my files and installations?

    Is there some easier way to fix this, like is there a default registry file out there that I can just download and run in windows 7 to restore my registry to defaults?

    Oh and I was also deleting a bunch of tasks off the windows task scheduler as well. I don't think deleting a task would disable the wifi but I don't know.

    Thanks for reading this far.
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  3. pebbly
    Posts : 6,243
    win 7 ultimate32bit, Win8.1pro wmc 32bit
       New #2

    Hi 10ftcoke ,Welcome to the forums Firstly run the system file checker SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker this will put right any corrupted system files then we will take it from there :)
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  4. 10ftcoke
    Posts : 3
    windows 7 ultimate 32 bit
    Thread Starter
       New #3

    Here's what I got

    > sfc /scannow

    ...

    Verification 100% complete
    Windows resource protection did not find any integrity violations
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  6. pebbly
    Posts : 6,243
    win 7 ultimate32bit, Win8.1pro wmc 32bit
       New #4

    OK read this tut Startup Repair Infinite Loop Recovery follow the instuctions on how to restore the registry from the backup reg folder :)
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  7. Petey7
    Posts : 2,963
    Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit
       New #5

    10ftcoke said:
    I was playing around with the registry deleting what I though to be useless stuff and being the silly man I am, I somehow disabled the wifi. I did not backup my registry and I have no system restores to return to because I disabled that service.
    What made you think anything mentioned above was a good idea?

    Your best bet in my opinion is to do a repair install. You can google "Windows 7 ISO digital river download" to find a legal download of the ISO so that you can do the repair install from a USB flash drive rather than a the install disc. It will take some work but will be cheaper than going out and buying a DVD-ROM drive. Note that if you have SP1 installed and the ISO is not SP1 then you cannot do the repair install. Hopefully the tutorials linked below can help.

    Repair Install
    Slipstream Windows 7 SP1 into a Installation DVD or ISO File ( not sure if you will need this. If the ISO already contains SP1 use the next link)
    Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool

    For future reference, the registry in Windows 7 does not need any "cleaning" or "optimizing." In fact, no version of Windows after ME has anything to gain from altering the registry. Also, unless you have less than 10GB of free HDD space, only problems like this is to come from turning off System Restore. It's easier to list the number of problems that CAN'T be fixed with System Restore than the millions that can.
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  8. karlsnooks
    Posts : 10,200
    MS Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 64-bit
       New #6

    I am in 100% agreement with Petey.

    Follow his advice.

    If I were to say how strongly I agree with his advice, the powers that be would want to chastise me,once again.
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  10. niemiro
    Posts : 908
    Vista Home Premium x86 SP2
       New #7

    10ftcoke said:
    I was playing around with the registry deleting what I though to be useless stuff and being the silly man I am, I somehow disabled the wifi. I did not backup my registry and I have no system restores to return to because I disabled that service.

    I can connect to a router on windows 7 wifi in that the router will detect an incorrect network password, but it always says limited access under the wifi icon. I cannot log in to the router to change the router's settings when i put 192.168.1.1 in a web browser. Otherwise there is no wifi functionality

    I know this problem is isolated to my windows os because when i boot on ubuntu (which I am on now) I can get wifi.
    I tried reinstalling the wifi card but that did not work.

    Any ideas what I should try next?

    I still have my windows 7 disc but my disc drive broke like 8 months ago... I'm probably going to have to end up buying another one

    If I system repair from the windows disc, will it still preserve my files and installations?

    Is there some easier way to fix this, like is there a default registry file out there that I can just download and run in windows 7 to restore my registry to defaults?

    Oh and I was also deleting a bunch of tasks off the windows task scheduler as well. I don't think deleting a task would disable the wifi but I don't know.

    Thanks for reading this far.
    Hello!

    I don't suppose you have any idea of which keys you deleted network data from? Were you clearing out services (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services)? Or were you elsewhere?

    HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer
    HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings

    ^These are the common settings keys, but I believe that you couldn't do this much damage with just these keys...

    HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Svchost - netsvcs
    HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\LSA

    Any of the other thousands of locations. Any ideas? Hive? Sub-hive? Key? Value name? Data you changed (I may recognise something).

    I mentioned those keys, because they are very common, and I might be able to fix them. If you can't remember, then it is unfixable. Repair install.

    Richard
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  11. gregrocker
    Posts : 50,642
       New #8

    Repair Install will not work with SP slipstreamed into ISO, you'll need the latest Win7 with SP1 installer.

    While you can run the extracted files, I would instead write the ISO to bootable flash stick to have rescue capability from boot in case the problems you brought on by deliberately ruining your OS cause the Repair Install to fail or it is not successful. In that case I'd follow these steps to get a perfect reinstall and setup, get a Win7 backup image to use if you decide to ruin your install again: Reinstalling Windows 7

    Write ISO to flash stick using Universal USB Installer with Win7 in dropdown menu. Run Setup from stick to Repair Install.
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  12. Petey7
    Posts : 2,963
    Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit
       New #9

    I can't confirm whether or not the repair install will work with the method I discribed, but Greg is typically very knowledgable about such things, and he is right that a clean install is more likely to fix the problem. It's what I would do in your situation, but I thought a repair install would sound like a more reasonable task for you.
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  13. gregrocker
    Posts : 50,642
       New #10

    Am not saying Repair Install won't work, only that it cannot have SP1 slipstreamed into installer and still work.

    The solution is to uninstall SP1 or, better yet, get a Win7 installer with SP1 to run the Repair install.

    My point also is to burn the Win7 with SP1 ISO to bootable DVD or stick so you have rescue ability if Repair should fail as it can.
    Last edited by gregrocker; 26 Dec 2011 at 20:44.
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