regedit not open from run command

Wynona · 11 Sep 2015

dcol said:

Yes powershell and cmd open from the run box. Everything except regedit opens.

Wow, this is a very strange one!

OK, I just tried this and it works for me . . . so let's see if it will work for you.

Right click the Start Window, select Command Prompt (admin) and hit Enter. Now type regedit and see if it will open for you.

dcol · 11 Sep 2015

Regedit does not open as administrator.

There is one other issue that may or may not be related. If explorer closes, the only way to start it up is a system reboot. Trying to run it in task manager also does not run. So explorer.exe has the same issue as regedit.

Wynona said:

Wow, this is a very strange one!

OK, I just tried this and it works for me . . . so let's see if it will work for you.

Right click the Start Window, select Command Prompt (admin) and hit Enter. Now type regedit and see if it will open for you.

davexnet · 11 Sep 2015

dcol said:

Regedit does not open as administrator.

There is one other issue that may or may not be related. If explorer closes, the only way to start it up is a system reboot. Trying to run it in task manager also does not run. So explorer.exe has the same issue as regedit.

Is it possible you have another instance of an executable regedit? I used explorer to search the HDD
and found four instances of an executable file in \windows , \windows\winsxs and two in \windows.old

Look for regedit.bat,
.cmd,
.com
.exe

Wynona · 11 Sep 2015

davexnet said:

Is it possible you have another instance of an executable regedit? I used explorer to search the HDD
and found four instances of an executable file in \windows , \windows\winsxs and two in \windows.old

Look for regedit.bat,
.cmd,
.scr,
.com
.exe

O . . . K, I was just in the process of doing that too and I found about humpty gazillion explorers. Mostly, though, just File Explorer and Internet Explorer, although I did find Planet Explorer. :) Which is probably something I've downloaded for my fiction writing.

davexnet · 11 Sep 2015

Wynona said:

O . . . K, I was just in the process of doing that too and I found about humpty gazillion explorers. Mostly, though, just File Explorer and Internet Explorer, although I did find Planet Explorer. :) Which is probably something I've downloaded for my fiction writing.

Not sure about that... I just right clicked the start button, Files Explorer
select the system partition on the left and search for regedit in the box, top right.

Wynona · 11 Sep 2015

davexnet said:

Not sure about that... I just right clicked the start button, Files Explorer
select the system partition on the left and search for regedit in the box, top right.

Ah and I clicked on my shortcut for This PC, clicked on "Search this PC" typed in Explorer and let 'er rip! :) And, boy, do it pick up just about everything that ever had "explorer" in it.

So, now I think I'll go back and try for regedit. :)

Ztruker · 11 Sep 2015

I found several threads on other forums where there was some kind of malware causing the problem.

Run a scan with your AV software and download, install and run Malwarebytes Anti Malware. See if either find a problem.

dcol · 13 Sep 2015

Found it. Thanks davexnet
It actually was an old version of regedit in the system32 directory, It was left over for the Win7 upgrade.

Same issue as with explorer.exe.

Make sure all those Win7 executables in \system32 that exists in the Win10 \Windows directory are erased from the system32 folder.

Wynona · 13 Sep 2015

dcol said:

Found it. Thanks davexnet
It actually was an old version of regedit in the system32 directory, It was left over for the Win7 upgrade.

Same issue as with explorer.exe.

Make sure all those Win7 executables in \system32 that exists in the Win10 \Windows directory are erased from the system32 folder.

And now you know the rest of the story . . . why a large number of us prefer clean installs. :)

I'm very glad you got to the bottom of your problem.

davexnet · 13 Sep 2015

Wynona said:

And now you know the rest of the story . . . why a large number of us prefer clean installs. :)

I'm very glad you got to the bottom of your problem.

I've never heard of this. Usually the upgrade cleans up old versions of system files and moves them to \windows.old.
Secondly, isn't the default location for regedit.exe \windows in Win 7?
How did it get into system32 ?