Hi. I was trying to fix a problem by altering regedit, I backed up everything so I can restore any mistakes I made. However the change(mistake) I made was altering HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\URL\Prefixes or HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\URL\DefaultPrefix In default prefix I added "http://" where there was none set. I now realise what this has done, I cannot open a lot of files, almost all, I get the message "This Internet Shortcut cannot be opened because failed to run". Programs arent running because their prefix has changed! I cant restore the backed up version as it wont open and I cant open regedit either! Some programs do run e.g Word, Publisher. Any help much appreciated. John

Change your regedit.exe to regedit.com. You will then be able to open it and correct your mistake by importing the old Registry.

Thanks for the idea, although the problem effects almost all my files, by altering the prefix in regedit no executable will open. renaming regedit to regedit.com gives me the same problem!

Try booting with your ME startup disk / boot disk and get to an A:\> prompt, and type: scanreg /restore Space after scanreg. Try picking a date before wantonly trying to destroy the universe.

Thanks for the help, its a good idea although the person I am doing it for doesn't have a disk! they have a cd, would that do it!? Would try doing a system restore from the C drive, although it wont open that either due to the changed prefix thing in regedit! Cheers J

Download an ME bootdisk from here: http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

Cheers dirty dirt bag dude, had just done that, giving it a go now. Thanks again. J