My HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SECURITY is empty

When I launch programs, my XP Pro/SP2 system sometimes hesitates for a
few seconds.

Using RegMon (by Systems Internals) I found this hesitation was when
registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SECURITY was being accessed.

I found that this reg key had no sub-keys. Should I have sub-keys
there?

If so, then what do those missing keys do and how can I get them back?

Jim <duff@nomail.invalid> writes:
>When I launch programs, my XP Pro/SP2 system sometimes hesitates for a
>few seconds.

>Using RegMon (by Systems Internals) I found this hesitation was when
>registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SECURITY was being accessed.

>I found that this reg key had no sub-keys. Should I have sub-keys
>there?
>If so, then what do those missing keys do and how can I get them back?


No, its normally blank.

If you've used RegMon at all, you'd notice it getting negative hits
for dozens of keys anytime anything runs, and apps usually try dozens
or hundreds of times for these "missing" keys.

Thats the normal windows design, such as it is.

"Jim" <duff@nomail.invalid> wrote in message
news:Xns990A9DA5FCEB064A18E@127.0.0.1...
> When I launch programs, my XP Pro/SP2 system sometimes hesitates for a
> few seconds.
>
> Using RegMon (by Systems Internals) I found this hesitation was when
> registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SECURITY was being accessed.
>
> I found that this reg key had no sub-keys. Should I have sub-keys
> there?
>
> If so, then what do those missing keys do and how can I get them back?

From ...
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/arc....mspx?mfr=true

Q.The Registry editor grays out the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SAM and
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SECURITY Registry hives on my Windows NT system. How can
I look at the content of these hives without resetting their ACLs?A
A.You can use the At command or the Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Resource
Kit Winat utility to force NT to expose these usually protected Registry
hives. Use At and Winat to schedule an instance of a Registry editor at a
specified time. By default, your system runs the scheduled session in the
security context of the System account. The System account has access to the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SAM and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SECURITY Registry keys; thus,
you can view the contents of these hives when your scheduled session pops
up. Be sure to use the /interactive switch or, if you're using Winat, select
the interactive option so that the scheduled Registry editor session is
visible on the desktop.

For example, to schedule a regedt32 session to pop up on the local machine
at 11:00 a.m., type the following command at an NT command prompt:

at 11:00 /interactive regedt32