Windows 7 registry repairs?

9613 Views 13 Replies 5 Participants Last post by Fred Garvin, Mar 23, 2011

Blade_Jones

Discussion Starter · Mar 23, 2011

Kelly's Korner has a lot great registry repairs, but those are for XP. Where are all of the good Windows 7 registry repair tools after a virus infection? Is a System Restore the only option if the virus wiped out all of the restore points? I have many issues that I am trying to fix such as inability to install Security Essentials.

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reventon

· #2 · Mar 23, 2011

If I were in your situation, I would personally go for a repair install just to be sure the system files are in order.

Repair Install - Windows 7 Forums

It is bit crude, but it really does take less time than finding and implementing many registry fixes.

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Blade_Jones

Discussion Starter · #3 · Mar 23, 2011

I'm trying to go the extra mile to avoid a repair install. The virus deleted all restore points, but the original registry duplicates are still there.
That's too bad that there aren't individual registry fixes for Windows 7.
I also did an sfc /scannow and it was unable to fix some corrupted files. Not sure if this is "normal".

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Fred Garvin

· #4 · Mar 23, 2011

Are you trying to recover old restore points or fix something specific in the registry?

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Blade_Jones

Discussion Starter · #5 · Mar 23, 2011

The restore points got wiped out by viruses. I'm looking for individual Windows 7 registry fixes. The only that I can find (ex- Kelly's Korner) are for XP.

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Fred Garvin

· #6 · Mar 23, 2011

If you can be more specific, I may have something. The usual culprits are .EXE file dis-associations and disabled security center. Malwarebytes is very good in that it will pick up some of these entries and show you the modified keys. You can edit them yourself or in most cases, Mbam will change them back.

If you can't install MSE, and Windows validation works, I'd double check for additional infections or disabled entries for Security Center.

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Blade_Jones

Discussion Starter · #7 · Mar 23, 2011 (Edited)

There a lot of problems here. I am probably going to do a system restore, but I'd sure like to learn how to fix these.

One of the specific problems I've been having is either a rootkit , registry change (by a virus) , or perhaps a changed setting having to do with administrator privileges is preventing me from applying the selection of "show hidden files, folders" and "view extensions for known file types" under folder options. I can check and click apply, but as soon as I reopen folder options it's back to the old setting. The only way I can view hidden files now is when I slave the drive to another PC. Smells like a rootkit but I have yet to find one. If a user did not have administrator privileges to view hidden files would there not be a warning window explaining that I didn't have the rights to change these settings?

Also Windows Update service is correctly set to "Automatic (Delayed start)" and is running but Windows update times out and tells me that Windows Update service is not turned on (!).

Small icons will not populate under control panel (only category view and large icons).

Start > Programs will not fully populate by a mile.

I can't install Internet Explorer 9 or Security Essentials.

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Fred Garvin

· #8 · Mar 23, 2011

IMO, you are still infected and you'd have to post in the Virus & Spyware forum to get help.

I would not rely on a system restore to repair a virus or root kit infection since that does not remove the infection or source file, in most cases. And if its a root kit infecting your master boot record, you could reformat and reinstall Windows and you'd still be infected. A virus/malware scan should also pick up a few of the registry changes that were made.

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Blade_Jones

Discussion Starter · #9 · Mar 23, 2011

The files and folders issue sure smells like "rootkit". I've run so many scans with different scanners (none found) that I'm at the point of last resort... time to manually delete suspicious files (while offline), more aggressive offline registry editing, and try using Kaspersky boot CD (which often renders my test PC"s unbootable. I'll report back.

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Fred Garvin

· #10 · Mar 23, 2011

IMO, that's the wrong way to do it. Make sure you have your data backed up from that drive.

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Blade_Jones

Discussion Starter · #11 · Mar 23, 2011

I backed up the data in step one. Are you saying that the right way is to stop screwing around and do a full reinstall?

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joeten

· #12 · Mar 23, 2011

Fred Garvin said:
IMO, you are still infected and you'd have to post in the Virus & Spyware forum to get help.

I would not rely on a system restore to repair a virus or root kit infection since that does not remove the infection or source file, in most cases. And if its a root kit infecting your master boot record, you could reformat and reinstall Windows and you'd still be infected. A virus/malware scan should also pick up a few of the registry changes that were made.

No he has told you go here NEW INSTRUCTIONS - Read This Before Posting For Malware Removal Help - Tech Support Forum

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jenae

· #13 · Mar 23, 2011

Hi, a lot of work to do what Paul did and like you many of us were grateful, I probably have enough to do a Vista Seven version.... now if someone throws me enough incentive $$.

You might like to give this a try it will restore your default security permissions (WRP windows resource protection) can be corrupted by a virus attack(usually a good one) and from then on unless restored you can have problems.

Have a read through this thread and mindful of the caveats you might like to give it a try.. I admire your desire to learn more.

http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f217/solved-device-manager-is-blank-545563-2.html#post3104592

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Fred Garvin

· #14 · Mar 23, 2011

Blade_Jones said:
I backed up the data in step one. Are you saying that the right way is to stop screwing around and do a full reinstall?

No, what Joe said. Let the security analysts help you. You can also learn a lot from reading the logs they'll have you attach.

IMO, randomly guessing at repairs in the registry, w/o knowing exactly what's wrong is the wrong way to go about it. Usually you end up with a system that won't boot into Windows.... Ask me how I know :grin:. If you want to reinstall Windows, go ahead. But I would wipe out all partitions (assuming you don't need to restore from a partition) before doing a fresh install.

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