Repairing the registry in Windows 95

[CompWizard]

Is there anyway to repair the registry in windows95 from dos like scanreg /restore in Windows 98 and Me. I got a acer system I'm working on that has a 266mhz processor and 32 mb ram and it boots to the Windows Loading screen and then locks up. I think I'm just going to have to format and reinstall, because it won't even boot into safe mode and I'm getting windows protection errors.

[YODA74]

I forgot with 95 regedit?? www.easydesksoftware.com (http://www.easydesksoftware.com) ????
about all the help i can be at the moment

[biggmc01]

will "scanreg /fix" work? try it

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Of all the things from my youth that I miss, I miss my mind the most.

[CompWizard]

i've tried every variation of the scanreg command, but I get nothing. I think it is time to just format and reinstall.

[classicsoftware]

If you have a windows startup disk, it should have regedit on it.

Boot to the disk and run regedit from the command prompt A:>

If it's not on your startup disk, boot to the disk and copy it from hard drive it can be found in the:

c:\windows
or
c:\windows\options\cabs

folders.

If your system boots to the CD-ROM, get a copy of Norton System Works, or Norton Utilities. Boot to the CD and run the registry repair tool. It beats the reformat/reinstall setup.

As you have found, scanreg is for Win98 only.

[Paleo Pete]

Scanreg was not available with win95, just win98. It can be used with 95, but I'm not sure if it will do any good if it was not already installed and some backups made before the problem started.

With win95 you can still replace the registry, by renaming the files. I think the registry files are in the Windows directory, maybe Windows\System. From a DOS Prompt get a directory listing to find out what registry files are there. (system.dat and user.dat are the current ones.) From the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM> prompt:

dir_system.* will display a list of all files named system with any extensions. Write those down, with dates. Then do the same for user.*. Use a space in place of the underscore ( _ ) used here.

Choose two with matching extensions and dates, write those down for future reference. Now some renaming needs to be done. From the command prompt within the directory where the files are located, let's say it's the System folder, your command prompt would be:
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM>

Type:

ren_system.dat_system.xyz (I use my initials for the extension so I know later which one is the bad one) This renames system.dat. Then the same for user.dat. Assuming abc is the extension of the files you want to replace them with:

ren_system.abc_system.dat

ren_user.abc_user.dat

would rename both files and they would then be the new registry. Remember the space and make sure your spelling and syntax is EXACTLY CORRECT. DOS is NOT forgiving, it assumes you know what you're doing...and does exactly what you tell it to do instantly...remember the computer is just a high speed idiot...it's YOU that has to know what it's doing.

If the files are located in the WINDOWS directory, rather than SYSTEM, the prompt would look the same, without the SYSTEM directory being shown. (C:\WINDOWS>)

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[This message has been edited by Paleo Pete (edited 09-04-2001).]