Enabling regedit.exe

My computer is running on XP Professional. I created an account, which I use it as my regular login account, and gave the Administrator right (it belong to the Administrator group). The built-in Administrator account I use it as backup only. Yesterday when I wanted to run regedit.exe, it stated that "Registry editing has been disabled by your administrator ". Though, I can run regedit.exe when I log in using the bulit-in Administrator account. How can I enable regedit.exe on my regular login account? Thanks in advance for all of your help!

 

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

#213 Left

Enable regedit


I also like X-Setup from XTEQ

Choose the classic interface.
Go to program options/ built in windows apps/ regedit/regedit enabled and put a check in the box "allow starting regedit "


Note also that this can be a sign of a virus or trojan which is blocking regedit to prevent its removal.

 

Dear oshwyn5 - Do I need to log in using my regular account or the built-in Administrator account? In order to change the registry value, I need to be able to run regedit.exe. The Site that you have given to me states that I need to change the registry value in HKEY_CURRENT_USER... However, currently I cannot run regedit.exe at all if I log in using my regular account. Thanks for the help!

 

Hello redfish,

Do I need to log in using my regular account or the built-in Administrator account?
If your regular account is a limited account, and that's what it sounds like, then you need to use an Admin account to change the Registry and any other system changes such as software installs. The reason I write an Admin account is because you can establish any number of Admin accounts. The OS gives you the default one, so you can use that.

Regards - Charles

 

Can't type this bold enough:
Note also that this can be a sign of a virus or trojan which is blocking regedit to prevent its removal.

Why, if your current account is a user with full administrator privileges, are you being denied access to regedit.exe? This shouldn't be.... that's why suspect #1 is viral in nature, unless your aware of any fancy policy customizations you may have placed on yourself.

Barring that try copying and renaming regedit.exe to regedit.com and run regedit.com. This will allow you to at least check for the registry values for "policies" and possibly the "run" keys or as folllows (courtesy of Kellys site)
NOTE:Any of her reg files can be opened and viewed in notepad for the hkeys and values used. These can be manually checked for and added, deleted or changed depending on what the reg patch calls for. (It's been a while since I've had to do this. It may even be possible just to double click on the reg patches after renamimg regedit to regedit.com, I'm not sure but you can give that shot if you'd rather.)

Registry - Disable Registry Editing Tools

Disable or Enable Registry Editing Tools (Line 213)
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

Repair the Registry Editor (Line 173)
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

Lift Restrictions from the Registry Editor (Line 275)
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

Manual:

Start/Run/Regedit
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

Value Name: DisableRegistryTools
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data: (0 = allow regedit, 1 = disable regedit)

Create a new DWORD value named 'DisableRegistryTools' and set the value to '1' to disable registry editing functions.
Restart Windows for the change to take effect.

Save the file to the root of your C drive, naming it regfix.reg. Open a command prompt window (start, run, cmd.exe) and enter the following
command: regedit -s c:\regfix.reg

Type in that command in hit the enter key. You should then be able to run regedit.
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Knowing and allowing for some group policy glitch that has locked you out of running certain applications I must add....
If this involves other executables as well, such as taskmanager, msconfig, and msinfo32, I would bet my life your infected with a nasty.

---------
If viral and other exe's are involved:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/fileassoc/xp_exe_fix.zip

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Don't know how current your virus software is or what your habits of using such are but consider online scan:
Free online scans

BitDefender AntiVirus Free Scan, check all box's except [ ]auto clean !!,
then have it delete the file if it cannot clean/repair/cure it,
turn off any Popup Blockers before accessing the site:
http://www.bitdefender.com/scan/licence.php

Panda ActiveScan-Free online scanner,
http://www.pandasoftware.com/active...n_principal.htm

Computer Associates eTrust AV Web Scanner: http://www3.ca.com/virusinfo/virusscan.aspx
It takes while for the active X install and the download to finish.
So Wait until its says succeeded for all files, you might have to hit refresh if it reports a failed. select all drives scan, Try to cure/repair, if it cannot choose delete!

RAV AntiVirus free Scan Online: http://www.rav.ro/scan/
Place a check in all the box's except autoclean.

If you chose to run a scan and it was positive for a virus you may even want to pay a trip to our security subforum and follow this up with a spybot and hijackthis.log go-round.

 

I created an account, which I use it as my regular login account, and gave the Administrator right (it belong to the Administrator group).
Missed that

Very high possibilty that there is malware on the system. Follow Ann's instructions and download HijackThis:
Download from here http://radiosplace.com/ latest version 1.99.1

Download it to it's own folder, for example C:\HijackThis - unzip (double click on zipped folder) - click on the execute - click scan button - click save log and save to the folder you just created *DO NOT FIX ANYTHING* - copy resultant .txt file and paste into your next post.

EDIT: BTW, it would be a good idea to eatablish a limited account to surf the web, it would limit the damage that could be done by malicious sites and leave the Admin account for those times when changes or additions are made to the system. I read your 1st post incorrectly, thinking that's what you did.

Regards - Charles