I just finished helping a friend recover his missing display properties tabs. When I walked him through it, telling him which folders to expand in the registry, etc. I went there myself, so if he couldn't find something, I could tell him where it is. At the end of the solution, you have to change the value of some registry keys in "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System" It worked fine, but on my computer, the "System" folder isn't there at all. I haven't had any problems out of my computer in the 4 months I've had it, and my display tabs are fine, so I don't need to access those registry keys, but shouldn't I have that folder in my registry?

cbb2, SWAG, did you first select the box to display hidden folders? Windows protects itself with the 'out of sight, out of mind' bit by default to prevent inadvertent changes. HTH. Ed in Texas.

Ed, he's talking about the folders in Regedit, not Explorer, there is no option to hide folders in regedit. CBB2 are you both using the same version ox XP, IE. home or pro? Also do you both have SP-2 installed?

No, we're probably not. I also don't know if he even has SP-2. Of all the times I've had to remove viruses, malware, etc. from his computer and help him do stuff, I've never thought of doing windows updates, probably because by the time I'm done, I'm tired of his computer lol. Anyway, here is a screenshot of what I'm talking about so you or whoever else wants to can make a direct comparison if needed.

Oh, by the way, cbb2 is now Brian. I didn't mean to confuse anyone, I just thought I'd put an actual name, rather than an unpronouncable abbreviation.

I have the system folder with Win XP Home 2002 SP2 The default key looks like this: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System] "DisableRegistryTools"=dword:00000000 @="" Besides System & Explorer, I also have ActiveDesktop & Uninstall folders under Policies.

Well, isn't it kind of strange that I'm missing these folders? Like I said, I haven't run into any problems so far, but it just seems like a missing folder (well, now 3 folders)in the registry would be important. Hmmm. . .do you guys think that some of those folders might not be created (Active Desktop, for instance) if I've never used the settings or whatever they correspond with? (Although then it would seem that I'd have to have the Uninstall folder, because I've definitely uninstalled things.)