John Navas <spamfilter1@navasgroup.com> hath wroth:

>On Tue, 23 Jan 2007 22:50:36 GMT, Jeff Liebermann
><jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us> wrote in
><le3dr2pbfb7pb1tbk9jpug5mgb862cflfj@4ax.com>:
>
>>... As for deletion of registry keys, be sure to do a backup
>>of the registry before attacking.
>> cd \windows
>> md backup
>> attrib -r -h -s system.dat
>> copy system.dat backup
>> attrib -r -h -s user.dat
>> copy user.dat backup
>> copy win.ini backup
>> copy system.ini backup
>
>Yikes -- Really Bad Idea(tm), since that's unnecessary, clumsy, and
>leaves the registry vulnerable.

It works for me. When you reboot, Windoze automagically restores the
attributes on system.dat and user.dat. They're only exposed until the
next reboot. As for clumsy, batch file will do it all at once. Cut
the above incantations, created a batch file, run, done. As for
un-necessary, I consider covering my posterior prior to making major
changes a basic requirement. Backups are VERY necessary.

>The right ways:
>How to Back Up the Registry in Windows 98 and Windows Millennium Edition
><http://support.microsoft.com/kb/256419>
>-and-
>How to Manually Restore the Windows 98/Me Registry
><http://support.microsoft.com/kb/221512>

I did it that way exactly twice. The first time, the CAB file it
created was useless garbage and would not restore correctly. I
managed to take it apart with WinZip, use expand to create an giant
editable version, conglomerate it with what was left of the registry
files, and ended up with something that eventually worked. If I had
used my recommended method of copying the registry files exactly, I
would not have had to waste half the day recovering.

The 2nd time, I let the machine go for a few days. Every day when the
machine booted, it decrimented the registry backup number until after
5 days, it went and removed it. I didn't realize that the backup was
just a manual version of the normal scanreg backup and wrongly assumed
that it was not going to be erased. I was left with 5 later, but
useless registry backups and no way to restore it back to the
original.

Also, the scanreg program can run from the MSDOS prompt, but scanregw
requires Windoze to be functional. I'm not 100% sure (no W98SE box
handy to check) but I don't think it will run if Windoze won't start.

>Another option is to use REGEDIT to Export a specific branch before
>modifying it.

Yep. That at least works if you like dealing with humonguous files.

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558