CertiGuide to A+ (A+ 4 Real)  9  Chapter 4: Diagnosing and Troubleshooting in the Windows OS       9  Troubleshooting Registry Problems

Solving Registry Problems 1 Less Fatal Errors

On Windows 9x/ME systems use the scanreg command with restore switch from MS-DOS mode. You will be able to choose from the last couple of registry backups.

Here is a trick how to invoke the same on Windows 9x/ME without any utility. Boot to DOS immediately and delete system.dat. The next time you boot Windows will see this file is missing and restore the last good configuration. In DOS commands that would be:

CD \windows (or the folder where you installed windows)

attrib –s –h –r system.dat

del system.dat

With this restore, you loose only the changes that were made since the last reboot. So, unless you made a backup after the last boot (like before some critical task) this is the way to go. Be careful and remember when this backup is being made, if you reboot and log on and then notice something is wrong your last good working configuration has been overwritten.

Other backups you might have are the ones made with Windows Backup tool. If you remember, you could choose to backup a System State. System State can also include Registry database and boot files. You will use the same tool to restore the backup.

You can also restore a snapshot made with ConfigSave or System Restore.

Solving Registry Problems 1 Less Fatal Errors