Author Topic: Registry Compressor bug in XP (Read 35698 times)

neroilo · « **on:** March 28, 2013, 03:31:50 am »

SYSTEM and NTUSER.DAT Registry hives were not compressed in my XP SP3 Pro, even in safe mode, using the best compression option.

I have some compressed hives named as SYSTEM.NEW and NTUSER.DAT.NEW.

Shane · « **Reply #1 on:** March 28, 2013, 04:32:33 pm »

If the system had trouble with SYSTEM.NEW then the ntuser.dat wouldn't be replaced either.

Here is how the program works.

1. It saves each registry hive to a new file and adds .NEW to those files. (it does this on Step 1)
2. When you click step 2, it tells windows to start using the .New file and to rename the current ones to .OLD
3. So at reboot only the .OLD files should be left. In order to replace the ntuser.dat I have to use the pending rename operations. Which has to be loaded in the system hive. So since the system hive didnt get restored to the new file the ntuser one didnt either.

So the question is why didnt the system.new take?

I dont have any error reporting in the program, I may need to add some.

Go ahead and delete the .new and .old files and try again and let me know how it goes.

Shane

neroilo · « **Reply #2 on:** March 28, 2013, 06:32:12 pm »

Quote from: Shane on March 28, 2013, 04:32:33 pm

Go ahead and delete the .new and .old files and try again and let me know how it goes.

I already did it, but it doesn't work either.

Shane · « **Reply #3 on:** March 28, 2013, 06:34:46 pm »

I will have to put some error reporting into the program so we can see why it isnt taking the new system hive then

Does it work if you try the other compression options?

Shane

neroilo · « **Reply #4 on:** March 30, 2013, 02:16:48 am »

Quote from: Shane on March 28, 2013, 06:34:46 pm

Does it work if you try the other compression options?

No, it doesn't, even after deleting .old and .new files.

This issue regards all compression options.

I have Panda cloud antivirus free in the background + Windows Firewall + Process lasso Pro edition (last stable version with default settings, no changes).

Willy2 · « **Reply #5 on:** March 30, 2013, 03:27:33 am »

Turn off the AV program & Process lasso and try again. The AV is the most likely candidate that prevents Registry Compressor from "meddling" with the registry.

neroilo · « **Reply #6 on:** March 30, 2013, 03:48:24 am »

Quote from: Willy2 on March 30, 2013, 03:27:33 am

Turn off the AV program & Process lasso and try again. The AV is the most likely candidate that prevents Registry Compressor from "meddling" with the registry.

Of course I tried both of them, I can still confirm it.

Shane · « **Reply #7 on:** April 01, 2013, 04:01:40 pm »

I am a little behind on getting some updates done. So many things hitting me at once.

Once I get the next version of Windows repair out, remind me and I will make a new version of the compressor with a way for it to report any errors. That will help us find out why that one hive isnt getting replaced

Shane

neroilo · « **Reply #8 on:** April 02, 2013, 04:05:48 am »

Quote from: Shane on April 01, 2013, 04:01:40 pm

Once I get the next version of Windows repair out, remind me and I will make a new version of the compressor

Done!

Shane · « **Reply #9 on:** April 02, 2013, 05:12:15 pm »

Give this new exe a try

If there is an error it should open a msg box.

Shane

neroilo · « **Reply #10 on:** April 03, 2013, 09:36:12 am »

Quote from: Shane on April 02, 2013, 05:12:15 pm

Give this new exe a try

If there is an error it should open a msg box.

Shane

No mgs box here. The program just looks the same as before, with the same bug described in my previous posts.

Shane · « **Reply #11 on:** April 03, 2013, 11:30:33 am »

Well crap lol

Let me double check the code and make a new exe to try and give us an error message

Shane

Shane · « **Reply #12 on:** April 03, 2013, 12:02:58 pm »

Do me a fave and post a screen shot of the program for me.

I want to see what it shows for the file paths for each one. I am wondering if there might be a char it doesnt like.

Shane

neroilo · « **Reply #13 on:** April 03, 2013, 12:23:23 pm »

Quote from: Shane on April 03, 2013, 12:02:58 pm

Do me a fave and post a screen shot of the program for me.

I want to see what it shows for the file paths for each one. I am wondering if there might be a char it doesnt like.

Shane

In this XP system I'm logged with an username who has a space inside it (i.e. Robert Connor).

Maybe your program doesn't support it.

Shane · « **Reply #14 on:** April 03, 2013, 12:31:11 pm »

I am using the Windows API and I just pass a string to it, I dont think spaces should hurt. Plus the system hive isn't getting replaced while the others are.

So I want to see a screen shot to see if there was something different in the path to the system hive.

Shane

neroilo · « **Reply #15 on:** April 03, 2013, 12:41:18 pm »

Quote from: Shane on April 03, 2013, 12:31:11 pm

I am using the Windows API and I just pass a string to it, I dont think spaces should hurt. Plus the system hive isn't getting replaced while the others are.

So I want to see a screen shot to see if there was something different in the path to the system hive.

Shane

Here you are:
-deleted-

Shane · « **Reply #16 on:** April 03, 2013, 12:44:49 pm »

Looks normal.

I will make another user account and add a space to it and see if it works for me. Perhaps there is something with it.

Shane

Shane · « **Reply #17 on:** April 03, 2013, 01:59:35 pm »

OK having a space in the path does keep it from working for the current user. But the system hive still worked fine on my system.

I will make an update to fix the space and then we will go from there on the system hive.

Shane

Shane · « **Reply #18 on:** April 03, 2013, 02:19:37 pm »

I take that back. It works fine. I thought the system rebooted when it didnt.

So on a xp machine it works fine with spaces.

And when I ran it again before the reboot the errors did pop up saying access denied. SO I know the error handling is working.

It is odd how the 2 hives are not loading, yet the others are and there is no error.

Shane

neroilo · « **Reply #19 on:** April 05, 2013, 11:27:25 am »

So, is there something I can do to help?

Shane · « **Reply #20 on:** April 05, 2013, 09:42:13 pm »

I can fix any bug that I can reproduce. But I cant reproduce this one and it isnt giving any errors.

Do you have trouble on any other systems? Or is it just this one?

Shane

neroilo · « **Reply #21 on:** April 07, 2013, 02:14:53 am »

When I ran it a second time before rebooting, I was able to reproduce these access denied errors on the same XP machine:

C:\Windows\System32\config\default.new
5: Denied access.
C:\Windows\System32\config\sam.new
5: Denied access.
C:\Windows\System32\config\security.new
5: Denied access.
C:\Windows\System32\config\software.new
5: Denied access.
C:\Windows\System32\config\system.new
5: Denied access.

So, the error handling works for me too.

Is it possible that your program is not compatible with User Profile Hive Cleanup Service?
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=6676

Shane · « **Reply #22 on:** April 08, 2013, 11:32:32 am »

Shouldnt be a problem.

The program is able to write the hive files to new files. The user profile is a simple move process at the system startup using the pending rename operations key in the system hive.

The program writes it to both the current system hive and the new one yet both are still not being replaced yet the other hives are as well. And the program gets no error, it thinks everything went fine.

Thats the hard part, nothing so far to give us a direction to look at.

Shane

neroilo · « **Reply #23 on:** April 11, 2013, 04:18:17 am »

I reproduced this bug on another XP, then I arrived to a conclusion.

In both OSes, I have a software called AnyDVD, which installs a driver component named SPTD.

Disabling SPTD driver through regedit as suggested here, RC seems ok now. No .new temporary extension in SYSTEM hive.

Odd thing is, I have AnyDVD with SPTD in another machine with Win7, no problem there (probably because my Windows 7 version is at 64 bit).

Shane · « **Reply #24 on:** April 11, 2013, 01:08:49 pm »

Great fine bud

I am at a loss to why the SPTD driver would keep the system from loading the hive though. At least it isnt my program lol. But I do want to find out what is going on with the sptd.

And sptd on the windows 7 would be a different version of the driver.

Shane