I have just completed a "clean" install of the released Windows 10 and have the same problem. Regedit.exe searches and finds things higher up, but then freezes. If I click Cancel it says it is no longer working, shuts down, and then re-starts regedit.exe. Driving me nuts when I try to search.
System is fine and no other problems. No scans or checks of any kind show a problem.
This is happening to many people, me included.
The trick to see if you are having the issue is to search for a file you know you don't have and let it scan the entire registry. If you have the same issue it just will never complete the search. If it gets to the end you are okay.
Basically the new regedit cannot read long strings so if you have a key over so many digits then it hangs forever on the search.
The error is not related to a particular entry, rather the length of the entry.
If you use regedit from the previous build it is fine. It is a bug with the new one which everyone has. If you aren't seeing it you just don't have any long entries.
I found a fix that works for me. It requires a valid 10586 ISO. Either from MCT before they yanked it or if you have the install.esd from the 10586 update and make your own from the ESDtoISO tutorial.
I have Win 10 RTM/GA running in one partition and Win 10 Insider in another. I recall a short time ago I needed to do an "In Place Upgrade" on my Insider OS. Never had a regedit freeze problem there. I do (did) have the freeze on my RTM OS. So I did an "In Place Upgrade" a couple hours ago on my RTM OS, and it fixed the issue. Did re-boot and still fixed. Searched for "picklesandcream" thinking that would probably not be found. Ended normally with the No Results message.
Will now put back on my handful of personal tweaks and see if the fix sticks. I have all my tweaks on the Insider OS with no issues.
Both OS's are still at version 1511. (10586.11).
Hope this may help someone with this problem. :)
Seems I also have the problem. Opened regedit and searched for nowisthetimefor. Let it run for 5 minutes. It continually used 15% CPU processing. If I changed the Performance display to Logical processors then it jumped to 33% for some reason.
I'd like to try regedit.exe from 10240 on my 10586 system and see if that does or does not have the problem but there is no easy way to rename the existing regedit files so they can be replaced by the 10240 versions.
Looks like
C:\Windows\regedit.exe
C:\Windows\SYSWOW64\regedit.exe
C:\Windows\SYSWOW64\regedit32.exe
need to be replaced.
regedit on 10240 works correctly.
I think it is a problem only on certain systems. I have installed the same Windows 10 version, from the same DVD, on a laptop and do not have the problem. I do on my desktop. The problem seems to not be regedit.exe version related as it is hardware related (ie drivers?).
Don't get me wrong, there isn't anything wrong with my desktop, the current version of regedit.exe just doesn't like it.
Last edited by zaqxsw; 25 Nov 2015 at 09:49.
Checked multiple unrelated Windows 10 Pro x64 machines (all updated to 1511), both desktops and laptops. They all have this problem.
Note that the key point in reproducing this problem is to wait: only attempt to cancel the search when you are sure that regedit has already finished searching through the registry. If you attempt to cancel the search too early (while regedit is still doing the actual work) the crash does not occur.
Last edited by AndreyT; 28 Nov 2015 at 17:09.
Hi, there's at least one other thread on this in this forum. As I recall a solution was to 'borrow' a copy of regedit from an older build - e.g. from Windows.old if that one works.
As you say, it's not a problem for everyone.
Meanwhile, there are other free registry editors. E.g.
O&O Regeditor
OO RegEditor
RegMagik (optionally free)
RegmagiK Software | The Joy of Personal Computing
These have a convenient feature regedit has always lacked- the equivalent of an address bar if you see what I mean.
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