Few days ago I was helping someone to solve their computer from Live Help and had to delete some suspected corrupted registry entries but wasn’t able to. If you didn’t know what a Windows registry is, it is a database that keeps settings for Windows computer. It contains a lot of settings for software, hardware and Windows user configurations. Editing Windows registry is dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing because if you wrongly deleted an important key, your Windows computer might not be able to boot up the next time. So no matter how confident you are, always make a backup of the registry that you want to edit or delete using the Export option.

Like I was saying, I had problems deleting one of the registry key. When I hit the delete key, I was warned by a popup that says “Are you sure you want to permanently delete this key and all of its subkeys?” Once I clicked Yes, I got another error popup that says “Cannot delete XXXX: Error while deleting key.“.
Error While Deleting Key
So far I only knew that a limited user account cannot run the registry editor but never did I know that an administrator of the computer can also have registry restrictions. To solve this problem, we’ll have to edit the registry permissions to allow the logged on user full control on the subkeys.

First of all, you need to make sure that your account has administrative privileges and know what is the currently logged on user name that you want to use to edit the restricted registry. My simple way of telling that is from the Windows Task Manager. Simultaneously press Ctrl + Shift + Esc. Go to Processes tab and check the User Name column. You should see SYSTEM, LOCAL SERVICE, NETWORK SERVICE and your user name. As you can see, my user name is Raymond.
Check Currently Logged On User Name

Now simply follow the steps below to take full control of the restricted registry key. Here is an EXAMPLE key that you cannot delete or modify without setting the permission first. I am sure there are more…
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\LEGACY_MCHINJDRV

1. Run Registry Editor by typing regedit at Run.

2. Right click on the key that you want to take full control of and select Permissions…

3. Click the Advanced button.
Setting Registry Permissions

4. Go on the Owner tab. Select the user name that the current system is logged on, check “Replace owner on subcontainers and objects” and click OK.
Taking Registry Ownership

5. Now you should be back at the Permissions window again. In Windows XP, click on EVERYONE and check Full Control for Allow. In Windows Vista, select the group that the currently logged on user belong to and check Full Control for Allow. Click OK.
Full Control Registry Permissions

Now you can modify and delete the protected registry keys. Windows protects those registry keys from being easily modified for a safety reason, so make sure you know what you’re doing before messing with it.


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