When i start up, my computer (windows98se) doesn't automatically make a copy of the registry (by scanreg). I can manually back it up in the windows system tools, but i would like it to automatically back it up as it was designed to do. This would be useful when having to restore the registry outside of windows. Where does this process happen, or what can i do to make scanreg make a backup copy? Any help would do. thanks!

Open the scanreg.ini file. Edit it however you like.

The backup is done only if Scanreg is one of your startups. Do Start > Run > MSCONFIG > Startup Tab and select ScanRegistry. You probably unselected it as you were trying to improve resources.

Are you really sure you want to do that? I think a little more control would be helpful. Even with scanreg disabled in your Start Up group if the system encounters a problem it will default to run scanreg /restore and choose the most recent backup. Now suppose that you have previously installed a new program or hardware and there is a fault. On the second boot after that fault was introduced on your system, the scanreg will detect the fault and restore the previous registry, which also contains the fault. You are now in a cycle of crashes and unless you know what backup was clean you are stuck. I have had this happen and it is no fun in trying to straighten it out. I suggest that you keep two copies in your Sysbckup folder at the most and that you run scanreg manually. If you don't change software or hardware you only need one clean backup. Just make a practice of backing up after you make a change, but do it after you have shutdown (20 sec minimum)and restarted at least twice.It will save you major headaches. John

Wow! Thank you all for great answers to my question. You've given me some good ideas and thoughts for me to consider. I've tried a few, and they have worked! Again, Thanks for your help!

If ScanRegistry is not set in Msconfig there are no previous backups for windows to recover from. I couldn't follow the logic of the infinite loop of restore. The registry is backed up on the FIRST boot of the day. If, for whatever reason, it gets into a loop loading a bad registry, you restart to a DOS prompt and use SCANREG /RESTORE to recover to a previous registry. There is also the implicaton that the registry gets changed only when you do installs or uninstalls. Windows and any running apps use the registry to store changed settings/parameters/references etc. every time they run. The other reason why the windows registry backup is a requirement, is that the registry being backed up has actually been used to boot up windows. There is a risk, small as it is, that a registry you backup manually may fail if you try to use it to boot.