I am interested in in downloading a free and reliable Registry Back-up software. 2. Any suggestions??

For XP, you could try ERUNT (second listing down on the page).

I thought you could back up the registry with Windows and there was no need for additional software. START - RUN - type REGEDIT - click OK - then click REGISTRY - EXPORT REGISTRY FILE. If you have a start-up floppy disk, you can start the PC on this disk and at the A:\ prompt type SCANREG /RESTORE (not sure if this is exactly right??) and you get a page that asks which registry restore point you want to restore to. You will get a choice of 5 dates/restore points.

Kind of jumbled - DOS scanreg is probably only applicable to 98, not XP. You should be able to start the hard drive in DOS without a bootdisk - if not, then the registry likely isn't your biggest problem. Scanreg runs from c:\windows\command and the registry backups are kept in c:\windows\sysbckup - all that's normally taken care of by the program. Why don't they make computers that will do what we think we want them to do?

Be aware that "long term" backups of the registry itself are of dubious value. As you install/uninstall various programs and make other changes an old registry will be way out of synch with the programs and file system existing. Restoring a very old backup could cause more problems than it cures. Whatever method you employ (if you wish to do this), it is best to regularly backup registries and only when all is going well. MS automatically backs-up but it is based mainly on whether the machine boots (not necessarilly good ones in other respects). On W98SE I use batch files for this and keep notes with them about changes to the installed state. Derek.W