How to Fix the Windows Registry
Now that we’ve briefly discussed how the Windows Registry works, let’s discuss why the Windows Registry breaks, and how we can go about fixing it.
As we mentioned previously, the Windows Registry is the giant storehouse of information for all the different software applications (like Word, or Internet Explorer) that run on your computer. When each of these different pieces of software is installed on your computer, it adds an entry to the registry. This is so the software can keep track of seperate settings (your homepage, for example) and also to let Windows know that a new piece of software has been installed.
The trouble starts when the piece of software is deleted, uninstalled, or has a fatal error of some sort. Then, entries which existed previously in the Registry no longer exist, and the Registry is essentially corrupted.
The difficult way to fix this is to run RegEdit.exe from the command line - something Microsoft itself doesn’t even recommend. If you’re still interested, see this article at the Microsoft Knowledge Base.
The more relatively easy way to fix the registry is to download a registry cleaner. We will review Registry Cleaners in a separate post.
What is the Windows Registry?
A lot of basic Windows errors seem to start with the Windows Registry. So before we start tackling the major problems that our caused by the Windows Registry, let’s try and get a basic idea of it’s history, it’s purpose, and why it can be your worst nightmare:
The Windows Registry came around with the release of Windows 95. It was designed as replacement for the different ini (short for initiation) files that were used to configure the computer in previous versions of Windows 3.x and previous.
The purpose of the Windows Registry is to serve as a centralized location for applications (such as Microsoft Word, your internet browser and many others) to store their data and default settings. It’s also where the operating system itself stores various portions of data.
In other words, the Registry is simply a place where you computer remembers basic things - from printer settings, to default fonts, to software installed.
Continuous Windows restart with BSoD
As we know, the Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) occurs whenever there is a fatal error in the OS. Usually these errors are transient and will go away after a single restart, but there are some which have to be taken care of explicitly.
To be able to debug a BSoD you need to be able to know what is wrong in the first place – information that you typically read of the BSoD itself. But what do you do if your computer is continuously rebooting as soon as a BSoD is displayed. This happens because of a setting in Windows. Now, following the ‘Prevention’ step-by-step below, you should disable this setting to avoid getting into a continuous loop of restarting in case of a recurring BSoD. If you are already stuck in such a loop, skip over to the “Cure” after the step-by-step.
BSoD: IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
Blue Screen of Death errors occur because of fatal errors that occur during the operation of your computer. One of the most common Stop errors is the IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error. It’s stop error number is 0×0000000A. According to Microsoft,
this Stop message indicates that a kernel-mode process or driver attempted to access a memory address to which it did not have permission to access. The most common cause of this error is an incorrect or corrupted pointer that references an incorrect location in memory. When it occurs in kernel mode, it generates a STOP 0×0000000A message.
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Troubleshooting Outlook: Error 0×800CCC0D
One of the most common errors that you receive while using Microsoft Outlook is shown in the picture below. This error can result from a large number of possibilities, and we will try to cover as many of them as possible in this post.
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Error on clicking on links in Outlook
Sometimes it so happens that when you click on any Hyperlink in an Outlook email, you get an error message which goes like this:
This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator.
This error is actually not an Outlook error. Your Outlook configuration is alright, but you need to go and fix something outside Outlook to get this working. This error occurs when a specific part of the Windows Registry related to Internet Explorer settings is corrupted or missing. This can happen if you upgraded the version of your IE.
There are a couple of approaches you can take to resolve this:
Windows Update: Error 0×80070422
The most common reason for 0×80070422 error when you are trying to run Windows Updates is related to the necessary services not running in the Control Panel. More often than not, it is related to the BITS (Background Intelligent Transfer Service). The Windows Updates use the BITS to transfer the updates to your computer.
The steps to resolve this issue are simple (you need to have administrative access to your computer):
- Open the Control Panel and go to Administrative Tools. Here, open the Services Program. (Alternatively, you can select Run from your Start Menu and type in services.msc and press enter).
- Here we have to make sure that two services are running. First locate the Automatic Updates service. Double Click the service to open it’s properties.
- Inside the properties page, set the startup type list to Automatic.
- Start the service if it is not running by clicking on the Start Button.
- Click OK to close the properties dialog box.
- Now repeat the same process with the Background Intelligent Transfer Service.