Editing the registry may really mess up your computer if you do anything wrong.
Makeup a backup copy of your registry on before ever opening a registry editor. Restoring your registry is important if you accidently delete an entry from your registry that you should not have deleted.
Erunt is the easiest way to backup your registry if using Windows 2000/2003/XP. Registry Wizard allows you to make multiple backups by entering a different path. In the event you need to restore your registry, start Registry Wizard and select "Restore Registry."
Restoring the registry won't fix your problem is you accidently deleted a file that the registry is looking for. In this case the registry is generating the message that some program is looking for the file you deleted.
If you were lucky and managed to delete enough of the program you were trying to delete and the file causing the problem was named under the company that made the program as opposed to the name of the program in the registry you could try running a registry cleaner utility. Like you tried to do when you were using finder review the list of files carefully before deleting anything.
RegEditX does a good job if you want to try to find the offending line of code in your registry by hand. I had a rough time uninstalling Norton Utilities once, because the information stored in the registry was listed under the companies name instead of the name of the program. Here is a dire thought: If worse comes to worse, you might try to reinstall Windows. Reinstalling Windows is a section all by itself. I call the reinstalling windows section: Yet another nightmare.
Attention Window 98 users: When I installed Windows 98 second edition, I found a nifty program listed under Accessories--System Tools, called Microsoft System Information. Under tools this program has two handy utilities.
Registry Checker scans your registry for errors. If no errors are found it gives you the option of backing up your registry.
System File Checker scans your system files looking for corrupt files. When it finds one; it asks you if you want to back up a copy of the file. Then it searches for the original file from your Windows 98 upgrade disk, and copies the good file to your Windows System directory. I used this the last time my original Pentium was acting flaky, and was happy with the results.
The Complete Guide to Windows Registry in an easy searchable format. Free ebook, the most comprehensive guide to the Windows Registry.
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