Windows 7 Cannot locate gpedit.msc

[osoulman]

Hey,

So i recently reformatted my computer and installed windows 7. Initially i didnt have my graphic card driver installed so the taskbar thumbnail previews would not appear as graphics but as tiles. once i installed the graphic card driver i went to this website to walk through re-enabling my thumbnail icons on the taskbar.
( http://www.blogsdna.com/2056/how-to-...-windows-7.htm ).

At the time, i had no problems finding gpedit.msc in the start bar search. After walking through the guide i had my graphic thumbnail previews and was reaping the full benifits of windows 7

. waaay better than vista lol

I installed system mechanic pro on my computer and enabled it to archive my registry once in a while on startup. i dont know what it does but every startup it does something with the registry i think it says archiving. (dont really know much about software and the windows os program).

Once i log in, the win 32 folder opens. It didnt bother me too much at first so id just close it. I saw online that this could be the root of a bigger problem ie a file missing from the folder or something like that. sadly i ignored it.

Now my thumbnail previews have stopped working again and instead i get the text box display like i had before. I checked to see if the graphic card driver was working correctly, and it was. i went back to the website to re-enable preview.

Now no results show when i search gpedit.msc in the search bar. When i click more results and search the entire comp i get two of these gpedit.msc. the only visible diff between the two is the date modified. When i click on either i get a message saying MMC could not create the snap in. I also searched the windows 32 folder to try and find gpedit.msc and no luck.

Ok, so now im kind of stuck. should i re install windows to try repair origninal registry and maybe get rid of system mechanic pro due to what i think are compatability issues. Or is there a way to restore an old registry with system mechanic (can i even trust this software anymore). What shoul i do?

Anyway, any adivice would help. i really have no clue about this specific problem.

Thanks for reading this whole blurb n hope to hear from you.

Omar

 

[RAK]

As you are at such an early stage, you will save youself a great deal of headache with reinstall. Have you not been making backups? selacting an earlier backup might also do the trick.

 

[osoulman]

Thanks for the input guys; those were quick responses.

I have disabled system mechanic pro from doing anything but did not uninstall it. i found out that its been "cleaning and tidying" my registry. Sounds sketchy, like my roomates version of "cleaning" the living room by stuffing crap into the drawers and creating more chaos.


So i typed in those commands into the cmd that came up in the search bar. It did some scanning and checking and dont think it found any problems or tried to fix anything.


after backing up my computer, i restored it to a prior date before i had installed system mechanic pro. I got my graphic displays back but still getting the win32 folder opening on startup and same problems when i try find gpedit.msc(maybe the two were unrelated) . Now in honesty, the only reason i wanted to open gpedit.msc was to get back the graphic interface. Now that i have my graphic interface back, im not sure if i should continue trying to fix this problem.

Basically im at another crossroad; should i fix a problem that i dont really understand the severity of, or do i just go on closing the system 32 folder every startup.

I dont want to deal with this headache again once ive got everything loaded up on my laptop and i'm back in school. i will not have timeto reformat my hard drive. I was thinking about just re-installing windows again.

Now i know the windows install has the option to upgrade and keep programs and files intact. Would it just require re-installing drivers if i install windows again? Will the registry be re-installed. what exactly is a registry? will i loose additional data by reverting to the original windows 7 factory registry?

anyway thanks guys.

Omar

 

[RAK]

I am, of course, unaware of any software you have subsequently installed. But, I am still of the opinion that you should bite the bullet and do a reinstall. If you select the option, in the customised install, to format the partiion/hd, this will completely wipe previous data. It is a "quick" format and only takes a very short time. However, if you elect to reinstall, over the old installation, it will place the existing data in a folder "Windows old" out of harms way. There is not a lot you can use in this folder, but it is a good check in your memory (human not computer!) as to what you had before. You will have to reinstall any of you personal software. Then take Drew's advice and stay away from anything which messes with your registry, without your intervention.
Fwiw. During the course of testing Windows 7, in its Beta era, I had occasion to be asked to try System mechanic. Two attempts, trying different criteria, resulted in reinstalls of Windows 7. This brings me to a second piece of advice. Restore is good, but image making is superior. get yourself an image program, there are some good free one available. As soon as you have a clean install running, make an image. Then customise and, if all is well, make another one. Load up your entire software and, yet another image. We all have loads of space these days. Tuck those images away somehwere safe..
I use Acronis, which costs. It takes about 15 to 20 minutes to make an image, and about the same time to restore it. I don't mess with faults, produced from my own dumb experiments, I just replace the image whilst Ihave a cup of coffee.

By the way, which version of 7 do you have. I know you said you got Gpedit up and running, but, it is not available in the lower releases of 7 (home etc) Maybe you are not meant to see it? However, the group policy facilty, is, you could say, a graphical interface into the registry, and not destructive, as entries are reversible.