PMAco's RegBak Procedure
When you add a new piece of software to your system, or if you're upgrading an existing program, and Setup says "It is highly recommended that you exit all Windows programs before proceeding", I want you to ask yourself if you've done a regbak before starting this installation. If you haven't, hit QUIT and close all your applications and do a REGBAK right NOW! You'll thank us for this later, we all hope it will be long later, but that later is going to come eventually.
Start/Run/Regedit/<Enter>
File/Export.
If we built your system, there will be a "Zinstall" subdirectory on your C: drive. Inside Zinstall you'll find the "Win95" subdirectory containing the *.CAB files and several other subdirs containing the drivers for other hardware installed in your system. There will also be a "RegBak" subdirectory containing the backup we did when we first installed everything on your system. Notice that within the "RegBak" subdirectory there is a file named a bunch of numbers. Those numbers are a date spelled backwards, ie: today's date would be spelled 970915.reg. There is also a file called RegBkLog.txt which will have a brief description about each of the *.reg files in RegBak. You're going to continue this tradition by exporting your current Registry to (today's date backwards).reg in C:\Zinstall\RegBak and then opening up the RegBkLog.txt and making your own entry to explain why you're doing this RegBak.
Very Well Done. Now you may go ahead and install that free Stock Tracking software you just downloaded off the internet with at least the peace of mind that comes from knowing that you can start over where you left off before everything blew up into little pieces. Nor should you consider that just because the installation CD came from a reputable software house that you are immune from horrible problems related to its installation. Before you install *anything* new on your system, do a RegBak. You'll thank us for this later.
RegBak recovery.
Oh, so your Software Tracking program blew your system to smithereens eh? Okay, to recover from such a mess, your first step is to go into System and "Uninstall" the errant program. Frequently that is all you'll have to do to recover.
But, if after you've done that you are still having problems (remember we're talking about real problems here, not just normal flakey Windows class operation :), it is time to break out the RegBak tools. We have to give you warning here though, when you restore a copy of an old Registry, you're opening a door to a time machine. Once restored, you're computer "becomes" the system that is was at the exact instant that RegBak was created. Each and every Operating System level change you made since that moment in time is going to go away permanently and irrevocably. It is NOT however, going to bring back the *.vxd or *.dll files that some misbehaved software packages replace and then don't clean up after themselves properly when uninstalled, so this method isn't a total cure-all. It is however a LOT better than nothing.
Start/Run/Regedit
File/Import
C:\Zinstall\RegBak\(BackwardsDateToWhichYou'llReturn).reg
Start/ShutDown/Reboot.


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