Accidentally Removed Permissions for the XP SP3 Registry key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT! Workaround Please!

Posted by Praveen Kumar on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Praveen Kumar
Published on 2010-09-22T11:10:18Z Indexed on 2011/03/01 7:26 UTC
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This is Praveen and I am using Microsoft Windows XP SP3 Build 2600. I had problems with using Microsoft Office 2010. It was keeping on saying, "Please wait while windows configures Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010".

After seeing this link: http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/outlookcontact/thread/6e9c3f2e-010a-4b74-b433-0c41548ee468?prof=required I thought of giving the Registry Key: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, full access permissions for Everyone. I went to the registry, right-clicked on HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and clicked on Permissions. I added Everyone and gave Full Control to the ACL and clicked on Apply. Also I checked "Replace permission entries on all child objects with entries shown here that apply to child objects." After a long time, it said with an error, cannot replace for few entries. Now, the key, HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT has no access to any user. My system is not starting up.

Some of my friends asked me to try the Last Known Good Configuration. Even that did not work out. When I tried to open in the Safe Mode, I got only one driver to load and even that didn't load well. Another friend suggested me to put the Setup disk and reinstall the OS. I tried that and after completing the "Installing Device Drivers" part, when it started "Installing Network", the system is getting restarted. Now, the setup is also half way through and even if I open in Safe Mode to try System Restore, it popped up a message saying, "Setup cannot run under Safe Mode. Setup will restart now." and the system is restarting.

All my official files and my software, which I developed for Registry Security, resides in my system now. I am unable to access the system and I want it to be working to submit the project, as the deadline is this week. I had no better solutions from elsewhere. Can anyone please help me out with this issue. If it is possible to open the registry editor's stored file from another system and restore the access permissions, I hope it would solve the problem. Please do help me.

Thanking You,
Praveen.

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