A badly damaged registry can turn your PC into a brick. Even simple damage to the registry can cause a chain reaction within the Windows operating system, damaging data beyond recovery. Therefore, it is important to repair the damaged registry as soon as possible.
So what are the causes Corrupted registry in Windows 10? You can get a corrupted registry on your PC for various reasons. One of the main reasons that cause registry corruption is some kind of manual editing in the registry. Sometimes even the smallest registry change can cause big problems. And that is why it is always advised not to mess with the log unless you know what you are doing. Sometimes even malicious software can damage the Windows 10 registry.
A damaged registry in Windows 10 can reflect the following problems on your system:
- You will not be able to boot your system. You may get a blue screen error during startup, and startup remains limited to the blue screen.
- You will be able to boot the system, as the damage is nominal, but while the PC is running you may suddenly get a blue screen error. Any unsaved data will disappear. Although in this type of error you will be able to access your PC for a while, the chances of further damaging your PC registry are greater.
How to repair damaged registry in Windows 10?
The approach to solving this particular problem will remain more or less the same regardless of whether you can boot into Windows 10 or not. We will try a number of things to fix your damaged registry. This will cover restoring the registry to a previous point, scanning and repairing the registry, repairing Windows 10, and a couple of other things. Starting with the most trusted method of users to repair the registry, we will cover other methods as well. If the first one repaired the damaged Windows 10 registry then everything is fine, otherwise go to the next method until the problem is solved.
Fix 1: Repair Windows 10 to Repair Corrupted Registry
One of the ways to repair a damaged registry in Windows 10 is through the Windows RE mode, which is the recovery environment mode. You can easily enter Windows RE mode without starting Windows normally and then performing self-repair. To repair Windows 10, follow the steps given below:
Step 1: The first step is to boot the computer into the Windows recovery environment. To do this, start your PC, then as soon as an error appears or the login screen appears, press and hold the PC's power button as it shuts down. This may require holding the power button for about 5 seconds and is known as a forced shutdown. Once the PC shuts down, repeat the process of force shutdown the PC a few more times until the PC shows Preparing for automatic repair screen. You will have to wait for the PC to run diagnostics and enter Windows RE mode.
Note: Your PC can access the Windows Recovery Environment in the first test. Therefore, be careful not to restart your PC once you enter RE mode.
Step 2: After the diagnostics are fully run, the following dialog box will be displayed along with the options. Click on Advanced options.
3 pass: On the next screen that appears, you will have three options; Click on Solve problems option.
Phase 4: Now, from the next screen, click on the file Advanced options.
5 pass: Here you will find 6 different options to choose from. You will need to click on the file Initial repair option.
This will open the repair screen where Windows will first run a diagnostic and then fix any problems found. The tool will show that your error has been corrected if so. In the event that a problem is found and Windows RE cannot fix it, you will be notified.
Once the Windows RE tool says the error has been corrected, try starting your PC normally. In case you can't, try the next method where you will restart Windows 10 on your PC.
Solution 2: use registry cleaning tools (third-party)
1. Download Regsofts Free Registry Repair Tool
2. Install it on your PC.
3. Now click Start scanning to analyze log errors.
4. When the scan is complete, click Correct mistakes to fix all registry errors.
While a registry cleanup doesn't always show a promising result, there is nothing wrong with trying this method as some users have found that it works to repair the damaged registry in Windows 10.
Repair 3- Restore registry backup to repair damaged Windows 10 registry
In this method, we will try to restore the registry to an earlier state when the computer was working fine. For this, we will first confirm if any changes have been made that may have damaged your PC's registry. If any of these changes are detected, we will restore the PC to where it was working properly. This method is also known as restoring the PC to an earlier state using the extension secret registry backup.
To do this, you will need to start your PC in Safe Mode with Command Prompt. Follow these steps carefully to perform this method repair damaged registry in Windows 10:
Step 1: Start your computer, and as soon as it starts up, press and hold the key F8 repeatedly (with a time interval of about half a second) until you get the advanced start menu. When you are there, select the file Safe mode with system symbol option. You may be asked to log in as an administrator. Log in with ID and password (you must have administrator rights). Your PC will start in Safe Mode with Command Prompt open.
Step 2: In this step, you need to check which drive Windows is installed on. The names of the drives on which Windows is installed are C:, RE: o ME:. Let's assume the drive where the Windows OS is installed is the C: drive.
3 pass: In this step, let's try to extract and examine recent activity in Windows. For that, type the following command at the command prompt one by one and hit Log in after each line:
cd /d C:windowsSystem32config xcopy *.* C:RegBack cd RegBack dir
Note: Replace the C in the above commands with the drive name on your PC running Windows, in case it is different on your PC.
This will extract details of changes made to / from any Software, system files or SAM files. Check the date of the changes displayed to see if a change has recently been made that may have caused a corrupted registry in Windows 10. If so, go to the next step, otherwise stop if the changes were made a long time ago.
Phase 4: Now, type the following commands one at a time and press Log in after each line:
copy /y software .. copy /y System .. copy /y Sam ..
Note: The colon in the previous commands are included in the commands.
Once the process is complete, restart your PC in normal mode. This most likely solves the problem as it has helped many users to repair the damaged registry in Windows 10. If you still have the same problem. try the following method.
Fix 4: run the SFC scan
SFC Scan or System File Checker is a tool built into Windows 10 that looks for corrupted files in the system files directory. And, in case it finds one or more files that need repair, it repairs them. You can use this tool to scan through your PC and it will look for damaged files in your registry and fix them if it finds them. Users reported that this tool fixes corrupted registry in Windows 10. Here are the steps to follow:
Step 1: Follow the Step 1 as mentioned in 1 method to start the PC in Safe mode with system symbol.
Step 2: In Safe Mode with Command Prompt, type the following command and press the key Log in key on the keyboard:
sfc / scannow
The SFC scan will start running. The scan may take some time to complete, so be patient while doing this. Do not interrupt the scan until it is complete. After the scan is complete, restart your PC in normal mode to see if the corrupted registry error appears.
If the error prevails, there are a couple of additional steps you will need to take. Sometimes it happens that the SFC scan cannot repair all corrupt system files. This will require you to run a file DISM scan o Service management deployment and scan image. This scan repairs damaged system files that were not allowing the SFC scan repair to do its job fully.
To run a DISM scan, restart your PC in Safe Mode using Command Prompt as mentioned above. Once done, type the following command at the command prompt in safe mode:
DISM / Online / Cleanup Image / RestoreHealth
When the DISM scan is done, rerun the SFC scan with the SFC command mentioned above. Once the SFC command is complete, it is time to restart your PC in normal mode again. This would probably fix the corrupted registry error for you.
If the registry is not resolved, try the next method.
Fix 5: restart Windows 10 (without losing personal data)
If none of the above options work for you, here is a safe solution you can use to do so fix corrupt registry in Windows 10. Here you will reset Windows 10 and by doing so will restore Windows as good as new with no registry errors. While it's a great solution to fix a corrupted registry problem, most people don't want to try it the first time. The reason is that, when Windows 10 restarts, all Windows settings will be reset and all programs installed on the PC will disappear. However, you can always make sure that your personal files are not deleted. By personal files, I mean files available on drives other than the drive on which the Windows operating system is installed. So, if you agree with the loss of installed programs, you can follow this method. These are the steps to follow:
Step 1: From Method # 3 mentioned above, follow the Step 1, Step 2e 3 pass to open the file Solve problems menu in the Windows 10 recovery environment.
Step 2: From the Troubleshoot menu, select Restart this PC option.
3 pass: Now, on the next screen, select the file Save my files.
Phase 4Your PC is now ready for a Windows 10 restart. The Reboot Wizard instructions will guide you easily to restart Windows 10.
This process can take several minutes, so allow Windows 10 to restart. It may take more than a couple of minutes, so please be patient. After the restart is complete, try to log into your PC normally and check if a corrupted registry error is displayed or not.
Last words
The Windows registry is a very important and sensitive part. You have to take care of it gently. If you've found pieces with methods for manually editing the registry, don't follow it unless you make sure it's a legitimate process. Also, if you have the slightest doubt about what you are doing, don't continue.
You can also contact the customer service of your PC manufacturer to have the damaged Windows 10 registry repaired.
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