Understanding The Registry Problems Of Your PC
"This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator. "
You click on a hyperlink in an e-mail and ‘pop’ comes the above message. Isn’t it just too frustrating? You have a presentation to submit tomorrow morning and all the required data can be accessed only via that particular hyperlink.
And now the silly computer is telling you there’s an error. You are the administrator of the computer. So who do you contact to deactivate the feature and access the hyperlinks? Clueless? No problem. Once you reach the end of the article, you will be enlightened.
The most common reason for the above error is a corrupt registry key in your Internet explorer.
The registry key may have a link like this: HKEY_Local_Machine\Software\Classes\htmlfile\shell\open\command, and this may be totally corrupted.
It can be fixed by resetting the Web settings in Internet Explorer. If this still does not resolve the issue, you will have to bring in the registry key from another computer.
What Is The Windows Registry?
The Registry is basically your system. It stores the various software and hardware configuration data that allows Windows to perform the tasks as per your needs. All details regarding the installed hardware and its related device drivers are stored in the Registry. Software details like file extension associations are also stored.
All of this information is stored in a file in the \Windows directory named SYSTEM.DAT. The other part of the Registry contains (C:\WINDOWS\USER.DAT) information regarding user customization like Desktop wallpaper, color schemes, sound events and others..
How To Take A Backup Of The Registry?
The best way to protect against loss of data is having a Full System Backup. But for those of you who do not have access to a backup media like a tape drive, having a current Registry backup can frequently be the solution to shunning a Product Recovery in cases of Registry corruption.
It will only take two minutes of your time and just two megabytes area on your computer. You can create a Registry backup using REGEDIT or CFGBACK.EXE. Microsoft also offers free utility both on a CD as well as on their site that can be utilized to save up to nine different Registry backups in a simple-to-use point and click setting.
What Are The Problems Associated With The Registry?
You can face several problems caused by system registry errors. It happens due to invalid or missing keys in the Registry. Symptoms include slowing down of the computer, crashing of the computer or stalls. If you can pin- point the cause of the error in the computer, it will be far easier for you to resolve the error.
Usually Registry problems occur from the actions of the user involving the installation/removal of software and hardware on your PC. If you regularly install or uninstall programs, erase startup programs, alter hardware and do not eliminate old drivers, remove software which was not uninstalled properly, then you may face problems with your Windows system registry.
There are various third party software utilities that make the process of cleaning and restoring a system registry easier. You can get information on them through any of the vendors. Or else you can give a Google search and a bouquet of options will flash on your screen.
These utilities show you an easy way to create registry backups, clean your registry, as well as repair problems with your Windows system registry. You will be given an option of creating a system registry backup from the current situation before many any alterations to your Windows system registry as suggested by the cleaning utility. You must create this backup. This is to take precautions against anything going wrong while the problems are getting repaired.
