registry problem

A Country Voice

hi guys,
sorry if this has been adressed somewhere already, but iv'e been trying at a loss to fix a problem with a pc.
I'm running windows xp on the pc in question.
Its not actually my own pc, its my brothers. He started getting asked what programme he would like to use to open a lot of promgrammes.
The error message he was getting on startup was "rundll.exe application not found"
I googled this error message and its something to do with a registry problem and the system not being able to open exe files.
I copied a solution to fix the registry problem, but just at the last prompt each time i try to merge the new registry file, it comes up with "error accessing the registry"
anyone have any idea what i'm doing wrong?
If anybody could help I'd be very very grateful, I'm not a computer whizzkid, but I'm not totally useless either :-)
Thanks Guys

A country voice

Maybe try to add it to the registry in safe mode (Hit F8 while windows starts).

But be VERY careful when editing the registry! One mistake and it may require a full fresh install!!

Edit:
Have you got admin rights?/Did you log in using an Admin account?

How to enter safe mode

A Country Voice

thanks for getting back to me joker.
I opened up the registry at one point today. I'd need to know which file to put the text into though. Theres a hell of a lot of files in there any ideas?
Thanks again for the help.
Oh I was logged in as administrator
thanks
a country voice

Nope sorry.

It may be a problem with the account. Make a new account with admin rights and see can you install programs.

If you cant fix it, Do you have a XP cd? If yes, you can use it to repair the XP on the PC that may fix your problem.

A Country Voice

I'll see if he has a cd.
Sounds like the safest option really.
Thanks a million for the help joker
A Country Voice

Gadgetman496

Did you get the fix from Doug Knox? HERE:

As a minimum download these and unzip them into a folder.

COM File Association Fix (Restore the default associations for COM files)
EXE File Association Fix (Restore default association for EXE files)
LNK (Shortcut) File Association Fix (Restores Default Shortcut Behavior)



If your EXE file associations are corrupted, it can be difficult to open REGEDIT, or to even import REG files. To work around this, press CTRL-ALT-DEL and open Task Manager. Once there, click File, then hold down the CTRL key and click New Task (Run). This will open a Command Prompt window. Enter REGEDIT.EXE and press Enter.

-

A Country Voice

hi gadget man,
I managed to get the regedit open yesterday.
I'm kinda lost then though.
What would be the next step?
Thanks for the help by the way
A Country Voice

zodac

Try going to Start> Run> msconfig> Startup tab. Uncheck the box which has rundll in its name.

Dermot Illogical

A Country Voice wrote: »

hi gadget man,
I managed to get the regedit open yesterday.
I'm kinda lost then though.
What would be the next step?
Thanks for the help by the way
A Country Voice

If you don't know what you're doing, the next step would be to close it.
As mentioned previously you can easily trash the OS if you make a mistake.

Get the program_new.reg file off this page and run it. If the .reg file doesn't execute, use File > Import in Regedit. Reboot.

Gadgetman496

A Country Voice wrote: »

hi gadget man,
I managed to get the regedit open yesterday.
I'm kinda lost then though.
What would be the next step?
Thanks for the help by the way
A Country Voice

Without opening the registry,

Did you download the 3 files from Doug Knox's site & run them?

-