Windows 7 Trouble Accessing Registry Editor: Window Flashes and Disappears

[gardnerman]

Hello
Can anyone tell how to access the registry editor please, when I click on reg edit it flashes open for a fraction of a second then is gone.
Thanks

 

[Peterr]

regedit. It is not seperate, but be careful - just back up the registry with system restore to be safe.
Write back if you don't know how. Give your operating system Win 7, xp etc.

 

[Trouble]

As Peterr has said, regedit.exe does not contain any spaces in the application, which is located in C:\Windows\regedit.exe
Are you experiencing any other issues with other executeables on your system (any files with a .exe file extension)?
Sometimes this can be the mark of a malware / virus infection so you may want to hit your system with a couple good scanners.
Malwarebytes, SuperAntiSpyware, Spybot Search and Destroy, just google them and make sure you download the free versions, install them then update them with their respective most recent signature files. Then reboot your system in safemode and run a full scan of your computer with each. You should be able to run them all simultaneously.
Keep us posted.
Regards
Randy

 

[gardnerman]

No malware I was trying to uninstall a program to installa bought version from scratch, I uninstalled the program selecting the option not to save settings to hopefully fully get rid of it, but when I run the newbought program it is treating it as if it's the old one and asking for a key.
The old program was legitimately shared from a friend, the software came withpermission to share with one friend and now it's expired and I'm trying toreplace with a copy bought under my own name.
I wanted to remove the reg key that's causing it to revert, I would always backit up as you suggest, I appreciate all help but my initial question hasn't beenaddressed which was the when trying to open regedit it flashes up for afraction of a second then is gone, my question really should have asked doesanyone have any idea why it's doing that.

 

[Trouble]

Well, I had an idea, as most research seems to indicate that such behavior might indicate a possible malware or virus infection, but you've pretty much shot that idea down, although I would be interested in hearing how you might have confirmed that your systems is absolutely free of any such possible infection.
Would you try evoking msconfig (found here C:\Windows\System32\msconfig.exe) just to see if that exhibits similar behavior?
Other than that you may want to scan your system files for possible corruption problems by launching an elevated command prompt and typing
sfc /scannow
just to see if that reveals any issues.
Keep us posted.