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While trying to remove a program (netscape 4.79), i received a msg from the
CP\add or remove programs stating "System\CurrentControlSet\VirtualDeviceDriver.
Virtual Device Driver format in the registry is invalid.
Choose Close to terminate".
I ran searches against the registry for virtualdevicedrivers, virtualdevice,
and finally virtual. No find for virtualdevicedrivers. Some hits on virtualdevice
but nothing relating to uninstalling. A few more hits on virtual but again,
nothing to indicate why something couldnt be removed. Only a "vxdfile"
(which i dont know anything about) posed a question for me.....
I am way far from expert on the registry and only in extreme cases do i even
look at it.
Is there a way to repair the registry files? I have a WinXP, sp2 (boxed
version) but this system has the OEM version loaded and i definately dont
want to do a recovery from the OEM CD.
Or, suppose i just deleted and reinstalled netscape, would that maybe fix
the problem?
As usual, thrashing around and getting into trouble!
thanks,
savagcl
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Do you have a System Restore point from just before this problem? If so, go back to that and try again, this time perhaps reinstalling Netscape on top of itself before uninstalling it.
I dont use restore points, i have Acronis True Image and always do a full
image backup (son\father\grandfather). It works very well.
Dont know if you read my reply about norton but yesterday i spent 4 hours
removing norton and symantec from my registry so i have an image with
norton and 1 without norton. Anyway, i tackled this problem a little differently.
I deleted all traces of netscape from the registry then deleted all the
netscape folders\files. I was also working another problem between mozilla
and netscape.
The mozilla problem is fixed and will get around to installing netscape later.
Hoping that a re-install will correct the reg problem (if it still exist that is).
System seems to be working just fine tho.... So if it still exist, it is not a
BSOD critical problem..
There should be more info on registry procedures somewhere. I'll do a search
and see what i find.
While trying to remove a program (netscape 4.79), i received a msg from the
CP\add or remove programs stating "System\CurrentControlSet\VirtualDeviceDriver.
Virtual Device Driver format in the registry is invalid.
Choose Close to terminate".
I believe in this case, VirtualDeviceDrivers is not referring to any one VXD file.
I believe the reason you are getting the error is one of three reasons.
1. It isn't there to be deleted.
2. User permissions, I don't believe a Limited User could uninstall something that touches that Key in the registry as it is a system wide setting. I assume you are under a Administrator account to begin with, just had to throw it out here.
3. Uninstaller accessing the incorrect Key.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\VirtualDeviceDrivers
I dont use restore points, i have Acronis True Image and always do a full
image backup (son\father\grandfather). It works very well.
There should be more info on registry procedures somewhere. I'll do a search
and see what i find.
I use Drive Imaging as well, and IMO SR cmpliments it by among other things, saving a copy of the registry every 24 hrs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by savagcl
Dont know if you read my reply about norton but yesterday i spent 4 hours
removing norton and symantec from my registry so i have an image with
norton and 1 without norton. Anyway, i tackled this problem a little differently.
I deleted all traces of netscape from the registry then deleted all the
netscape folders\files. I was also working another problem between mozilla
and netscape.
Sorry to hear about your problems, you probably make frequent Images.
A note about AcronisTI, just found out that it (the restore) will NOT work
with the 64-bit addressing systems. Acronis keeps saying that it will in the
future but cant give a date or even a swag as to when.
So, none of my backups are any good. Guess its back to system restore for a
while.
I only receive that specific error msg with netscape (4.79). Either uninstalling
or installing. I know netscape is not present in the registry or on the HD. I
did a look-see through the regedit and the regedt32 files and it was not present
in either of them.
Actually, i can't find any file(s) named "virtualdevicedrivers" or "VDD" anywhere
in the reg. As close as i can get is a "vxdfile" (occurs twice in the reg).
Looking in the currentcontrolset (where the msg says it is located) is a non-
started because it is not there.
Maybe thats the problem, the file is missing all togeather??????
Have no idea how to fix this one.. Cant do a Windows Recovery because of
the gateway OEM.
Basically the purpose of a reg cleaner, including this one, is to find orphaned reg entries and then giving you the choice of deleting them. In this case, finding all traces of netscape and getting rid of them.
RegSeeker has a lot of other options - such as listing startups, listing installed apps, searching the registry, finding/deleting invalid Add/Remove entries, and so on.
If you have already used Regseeker, you are probably wondering what is safe to remove and what is not.
Add/Remove entries if found are not always errors, for example to uninstall a program you need to insert the installation CD, and Regseeker would mark it as an error as the file cannot be found (CD not in).
Some software, will create an entry that Regseeker cannot make sense of and marks as an error, and is necessary for the program to work. Works 4.5, and Windows Media Player will do this.
Invalid ActiveX Control, invalid Type Libraries, invalid CLSID's, missing Shared Dll's are safe to remove at any time.
I would not remove any file types it finds as an error.
Yes, I have already used it. It found 140 (plus/minus) errors. 7 of which i knew
i needed - they referred to files on my (offline) HD.
Lots were from the junk software that the seller gets paid to provide (and the
user immediately removes). Just leftovers from that.
Did nothing about the virtual device driver problem but so far i havent seen it
again so i'm letting things ride until i can get a good system backup.
