Win 7 / 64 Numerous "Regedit.exe" missing messages during repair

[GHenry]

I clicked those Messages away each time; now I do not know whether the repairs were successful. In a subsequent search it turned out that c:\windows, c:\windows\sysWOW64 and two instances in c:\windows\winsxs did not contain that file.

What should I do?
G. Henry

[Willy2]

- REGEDIT should be present in the "C:\windows\system32" and/or in "c:\windows"
- Do you know someone who has also a Win 7 system ? Then copy that file to one of the folders above.

[GHenry]

Before running tweaking.com, c:\windows DID contain regedit.exe. When printing didn't work either after the repair (PRINTSPOOLER repair), I restored the original registry, and bang - regedit.exe was there again, and the printer worked fine.

So I'm not sure whether I should trust tweaking.com...

[Willy2]

- Your problem makes it perfectly clear why making a backup is essential !!!!
- What version of Windows Repair did you use ? And what repairs did you run ?
- Based on my personal info (also a Win 7, 64 bit system) "Regedit.exe" is (physically) located somewhere in the in "winsxs" folder. But both "system32" & "c:\windows" contain a junction link to the file in the "winsxs" folder.

[Shane]

My program doesnt remove any system file or anything like that and the repairs call regedit to apply the .reg files to the registry, by any chance did you get a screen shot of the error so I could see exactly what it said?

What is also strange is that restoring the registry wouldnt have restored any missing system files, it only restores the registry itself. So it is odd how the file showed back up after that. But the system file checker should have put regedit back if it was missing, which is most likely what happened when you had rebooted.

I havent had any other user ever report this problem with regedit missing, I would really like to find out why and what is happening.

If you dont mind helping, would you be willing to first do a backup of your system so that you can restore if needed and then try the repairs again and if you get the error take a screen shot of it so I can see it as it is? That way I can try to find out what is going on

If not that is fine as well.

Shane

[GHenry]

> My program doesn't remove any system file
Yes, that's what I assumed. The problem(s) may have as a result of a preceding crash of my rollback software and an incorrect restore of the original system. And no, I did not take a screenshot.

It is also possible that, when later checking for the missing REGEDIT file, I restored the mssing version in
c:\windows\ from my system backup. I agree that it cannot have been restored solely because I recovered the original registry.

The fact remains, however, that among numerous other things TWEAKING reported that the PRINTSPOOLER would be repaired, and that afterwards the printer did not work anymore. In addition, in its pre-scan TWEAKING reported 11 files in c:\windows\servicing\packages as corrupt. When, however, I compared those files both with my backup and with the original Windows files, they were identical in date of creation and length. For test purposes I copied the original files back to c:\windows\servicing\packages and ran the TWEAKING pre-scan once more, and again the files were marked by TWEAKING as corrupt.

Unfortunately, after two days of repair work, I'sorry to say that I don't have the time to rerun the whole procedure (although I do understand your wish to find out what happened). Moreover, TWEAKING reported (and tried to correct) a load of errors, so there wasn't just one error screen I could have sent you. During the first run I seem to remember that TWEAKING repaired a number of parse point and environment faults, which did not re-appear in the following pre-scan (after restoration of the registry).

I am enclosing the result file which may give you a more precise idea of what happened.

Kind regards
G

[GHenry]

I am using TWEAKING version 3.1.4.

[Shane]

For test purposes I copied the original files back to c:\windows\servicing\packages and ran the TWEAKING pre-scan once more, and again the files were marked by TWEAKING as corrupt.

The program looks at the digital signature of the files, if it doesnt have one (The cat files) it will show it as bad as if a file is changed at all the signature is gone. For the mum files there is no signature, instead the program asks windows to check it, which the point of a .cat file is to store the has info of a file, if the mum file is changed at all it wont match the hash in the cat file and so will be considered corrupt.

But in order for Windows to report back to my program if the mum file is good the cat file has to be in the cat file database in windows, sometimes something might have removed it from there so no matter what it will report as bad since the cat file isnt there. Thats why I have a check box in the pre scan to add the cat files back just in case. That will normally fix that if missing cat files is the problem.

As for the repair printer spooler, that is normally a very easy repair, restore the spooler service registry keys, so if it didnt work after then I think something might be different on your system, would you mind exporting out the spooler service on your system so i can compare it to the spooler.reg in the files folder with the program?

Open regedit and go to hkey_local_machine\system\current control set\services\spooler.

Right click on spooler and export it out and attach it to a post

Shane

[GHenry]

Hi Shane,

thanks for your answer (although I'm not expert enough to understand the details of the 'mum files' procedure - which doesn't matter).

Enclosed you'll find the requested Spooler entry (from the restored registry).

Kind regards
G.

[Shane]

Thanks, your regsitry of the service is the exact same as the one with the program, down to the last letter.

Then the only other commands in that repair are

net stop spooler /y
del /F /S /Q "%systemroot%\System32\spool\PRINTERS\*.*" 1>> "TweakingLogFile"
del /F /S /Q "%systemroot%\System32\spool\SERVERS\*.*" 1>> "TweakingLogFile"
net start spooler /y

Which just removes temp print files, but the only thing registry wise is that spooler service, yet it is no different. Very odd, sorry but I dont have an answer for you as to why it stopped, I use the repairs daily and never had a problem with the spooler service, unless something got in the way and messed up  the data in the reg files the program uses, that is possible. (One of the reason why I ask users to run the repairs in safe mode)

I have been deciding on updating the program to check the md5 hash of each file. Right now it checks that the files are there in the files folder, but it doesnt check if they have been changed at all. I think it would be a good idea for me to add that check as well so that way if a reg file has been messed up or modified by a 3rd party program or even a bad sector on the hard drive that it doesnt make a huge problem.

Thanks for getting me the info, I think I will work on this and have it ready for the next update

Shane

[GHenry]

I've been working with Windows computers for over 30 years (and with CP/M before that) and have come to consider Windows not as an operating system but as the biggest virus in the history of computers. So I'm quite accustomed to inexplicable things happening.

I'd be interested to be informed about updates of your program. What I personally would like to emphasize is the possibility of undoing at any time any changes your program may have made.

Thanks for your cooperation.

Kind regards
G.

[Shane]

What I personally would like to emphasize is the possibility of undoing at any time any changes your program may have made.

Thats why I have it do a registry backup

90% of the repairs have to do with the registry and so because there is always unknown variables that could cause something to go wrong I like to make sure the user has a registry backup they can restore from.

I think having the program check the files with a md5 hash is a good idea, as with the number of reg file the program uses, if any of those files gets corrupted or changed it could then cause problems, so better to be safe and make sure they havent changed.

In the middle of moving to a new home in a couple of weeks so I am slammed, but my goal is to try and have it done by next weeks update

Shane

[GHenry]

Let me say that I appreciate you kind cooperation. As for the planned updates, I myself will be away for some time to Asia and will not be using your program for quite a while.

However, I should like to add one comment: in my view it would be desirable to have the option of undoing ALL changes your tool may have made, although I'm quite aware that that may be too big a challenge. Anyway, as far as I'm concerned, I always make a general backup before doing any major checkup or repair work.

Thanks again!
G.

[Shane]

It is actually impossible for me to make an undo for all the repairs. The reason why is all the repairs are ran through Windows itself, and things like registering a dll file (Just as one example) is done by windows and when you register a dll file it writes itself to the registry and such. So there is no possible way for me to know everything that is going on and what registry keys it is setting, so the best thing to do is backup the whole registry

Have fun on your trip.

Shane