Hello,

We have a system with a corrupted registry. It seems that all of the file
type <-> program mappings have been removed. So Windows XP doesn't know what
application to use when trying to run any file. This includes EXE, LNK
(shortcuts) and everything else.

It is possible to log into the system but not run any programs without being
prompted for an Application to execute the file with. I am looking for a way
in which to restore this part of the registry to this system. One
difficultly is that I cannot use regedit as it suffers from the same issues
as any other program. We do not have a backup of the registry for this
system, but we do have similarly configured systems we could use.

I tried using the Windows Remote Registry service, I thought I might be able
to access HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT using it. But when I open the systems registry
it was not accessible.

This machine has a lot of software setup on it and a re-install of the
system would be a lot of work I would like to avoid if possible. If anyone
can suggest an alternative method of repairing this I would be very pleased!

The alternative of manually replacing each mapping by hand while I suppose
is an option would again be best avoided if possible, although I am willing
to go down that route if nobody can suggest a quicker approach.

Any ideas gladly received.
Dominic

There is a written procedure to restore earlier versions of the Registry.
Generally recommended for non-boot situations, it might help you:
http://support.microsoft.com/Default.aspx?kbid=307545

"Dominic Marks" <dominic.marks.spam@spam.graphdata.co.uk> wrote in message
news:OaWYvKU6GHA.3288@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> Hello,
>
> We have a system with a corrupted registry. It seems that all of the file
> type <-> program mappings have been removed. So Windows XP doesn't know
> what application to use when trying to run any file. This includes EXE,
> LNK (shortcuts) and everything else.
>
> It is possible to log into the system but not run any programs without
> being prompted for an Application to execute the file with. I am looking
> for a way in which to restore this part of the registry to this system.
> One difficultly is that I cannot use regedit as it suffers from the same
> issues as any other program. We do not have a backup of the registry for
> this system, but we do have similarly configured systems we could use.
>
> I tried using the Windows Remote Registry service, I thought I might be
> able to access HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT using it. But when I open the systems
> registry it was not accessible.
>
> This machine has a lot of software setup on it and a re-install of the
> system would be a lot of work I would like to avoid if possible. If anyone
> can suggest an alternative method of repairing this I would be very
> pleased!
>
> The alternative of manually replacing each mapping by hand while I suppose
> is an option would again be best avoided if possible, although I am
> willing to go down that route if nobody can suggest a quicker approach.
>
> Any ideas gladly received.
> Dominic
>