Much talking about registry cleaning these days.I have jv16 power tools (an upgrade of RegCleaner) and I try to be careful.I don't understand how but something I removed (that I probably thaught it was safe to remove) and then I couldn't open Windows installed components at Control Panel/add-remove programs. I copy this from an older post here,it solved my problem. Many thanks KRYSTYNA.!!! ---------------- Name: Tattoo Date: January 01, 2002 at 23:52:30 Pacific Subject: Rundll32 problem-o- !!!! Comment: 850 AMD Duron 20 G HD 128 MB Ram what else ?? Anywho ,,, when I open Add/remove programs and goto Windows setup I get " Rundll32 has caused an error in SETUPX.DLL......Rundll32 will now close " Scandisk restarts 10 times , so goto safe mode ,,, finnishes , but with no errors? Tried restoring from 4 days ago ,, defraged ( in safe mode ) and still got the problem-o- Help please ,, thanks Report Offensive Message For Removal Response Number 1 Name: Krystyna Date: January 02, 2002 at 00:07:10 Pacific Subject: Rundll32 problem-o- !!!! Reply: Try this - it usually works. Copy and paste these lines exactly as they are, into Notepad, starting at Regedit4, and including everything down to the last inverted commas. Save it as SETUPX.REG in My Documents and then double click the file to run it. The registry entries will be edited and hopefully all will be well again. Good luck. ******************************************* REGEDIT4 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\VarLDID] "28700"="C:\\PROGRA~1" "28701"="C:\\Program Files" "28702"="C:\\PROGRA~1" "28710"="C:\\PROGRA~1\\ACCESS~1" "28720"="C:\\PROGRA~1\\ACCESS~1\\HYPERT~1" "28730"="C:\\PROGRA~1\\COMMON~1" "28732"="C:\\PROGRA~1\\COMMON~1" "28740"="C:\\PROGRA~1\\COMMON~1\\MICROS~1" "28742"="C:\\PROGRA~1\\COMMON~1\\MICROS~1" "29000"="C:\\PROGRA~1\\INTERN~1" "29001"="C:\\Program Files\\Internet Explorer" "29002"="C:\\PROGRA~1\\INTERN~1" "29400"="C:\\PROGRA~1\\INTERN~1\\CONNEC~1" "29401"="C:\\Program Files\\Internet Explorer\\Connection Wizard" "29402"="C:\\PROGRA~1\\INTERN~1\\CONNEC~1" "29800"="C:\\PROGRA~1\\NETMEE~1" "29801"="C:\\Program Files\\NetMeeting" "29802"="C:\\PROGRA~1\\NETMEE~1" "30000"="C:\\PROGRA~1\\OUTLOO~1" "30001"="C:\\Program Files\\Outlook Express" "30002"="C:\\PROGRA~1\\OUTLOO~1" "30100"="C:\\WINDOWS\\system" "30400"="C:\\PROGRA~1\\Plus!\\Themes" "30600"="C:\\PROGRA~1\\MESSEN~1" "30601"="C:\\Program Files\\Messenger" "30602"="C:\\PROGRA~1\\MESSEN~1" "30800"="C:\\PROGRA~1\\WINDOW~1" "30801"="C:\\Program Files\\Windows Media Player" "30802"="C:\\PROGRA~1\\WINDOW~1" "30810"="C:\\PROGRA~1\\MOVIEM~1" "30811"="C:\\Program Files\\Movie Maker" "30812"="C:\\PROGRA~1\\MOVIEM~1" "30900"="C:\\WINDOWS\\APPLIC~1" "30901"="C:\\WINDOWS\\Application Data" "30902"="C:\\WINDOWS\\APPLIC~1" "30910"="C:\\WINDOWS\\APPLIC~1\\MICROS~1" "30911"="C:\\WINDOWS\\Application Data\\Microsoft" "30912"="C:\\WINDOWS\\APPLIC~1\\MICROS~1"

Good for you everything is running again. Remember this if you are still using JV16PowerToys or RegCleaner to KEEP YOUR BACKUPS until you are sure your computer is running well after the removal of cleaned registry entries. Because you can restore them. However, I've not experienced your problem yet - but again I use RegCleaner which is similar to PowerToys in its registry cleanup. .

adding...... If you screw something up while tinkering with registry cleaners you have a few built in options to recover... Reg cleaner/tweaker tools usually creates backups before making changes. Windows: creates registry backups daily. System restore: Rolls back in time. [sometimes :] Also... Doesnt hurt to manually create a backup just before you dive in.

The problem is that I discovered this many days after I have the mistake done and I had removed old backups. I must keep them for 2 weeks at least...