Restoring the Registry

[RenaissanceMan]

I have used the regeditor to export the entire registry to a file before making any changes to the registry and there were a couple of times that this saved my system from extreme distress whereas I had to use that file to correct my ...shall I say experimentations
Anyway, my question is, How could one use that file if you could only get to the command prompt off of a boot disk? if you really caused some serious problems and windows would not launch. I seem to remember when windows95 came out some vague procedure like rename system.bak to some... bla, bla,... I really can't remember.
any input here?
thanks

[BFlurie]

There's ways in W95 to restore to registry from the standard backups; System & User.da0 (all of these actions must be performed in PURE DOS -- either starting up in DOS are shutting down to it -- DON'T TRY THIS IN A DOS WINDOW!!!):

cd\
c:
cd windows
ATTRIB -S -H -R C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.*
ATTRIB -S -H -R C:\WINDOWS\USER.*
ren system.dat system.old
ren system.da0 system.dat
ren user.dat user.old
ren user.da0 user.dat
ATTRIB +S +H +R C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.DAT
ATTRIB +S +H +R C:\WINDOWS\USER.DAT

But you want to use an exported registry. Here I assume you saved it in C:\windows & gave it the name Backup.reg
So all you need to do is (assuming regedit.exe is in C:\windows):

cd\
C:
cd windows
regedit /c Backup.reg

That's it.

WARNING: W95's Regedit.exe has a bug in it's operation that might prevent this from working (long registry keys). Copy the W98 version of Regedit.exe to your box & no more problemos.

[This message has been edited by BFlurie (edited 10-31-2000).]

[RenaissanceMan]

Ah, thats the procedure all right, I am using win98 , I was just making a reference to the release of 95. thanks for your post BFlurie I am quite proficient with DOS so I believe I will be making a small batch file to run this little guy.
thanks again.
good day.

[BFlurie]

'Course, W98 can use the Scanreg/ restore stuff (which can also be used in W95). If you load Smartdrv in the batch file, it'll "import" much faster. I remember reading somewhere a Smartdrv command that'll "unload" it, but right now I couldn't find it. Smartdrv /? doesn't indicate it, but there are often "hidden" switches. A "tiny" Smartdrv load command is:
Smartdrv 2048 16


[This message has been edited by BFlurie (edited 11-01-2000).]

[jeana]

Nice page, though a little old...for Windows 95/98 http://www.knowplace.org/registry.html

It has a little script, backNfro.exe that will back up or restore your registry.

[RenaissanceMan]

Hey! thanks people...... I really appreciate the info...
Jeana, I will be checking into that site, and BFlurie, although I learned computers and their functions from DOS on up (which I think should be a prerequisite for any computer user) I haven't seen the term smartdrv in a long time, amazing how quick we can forget the basics , thanks again.

The main reason for my inquiries to the registry are that I have a basic machine that I am constantly "Messing up" on purpose to see if and how to resolve the problems that I create, good way to learn don't ya think?

[BFlurie]

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basic machine that I am constantly "Messing up" on purpose to see if and how to resolve the problems that I create

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HEY, that's MY box!!