How to access the Registry

Following a failed upgrade to Windows10, I've had quite a few problems. These included corrupt tasks in the registry. Anyone wanting to know how that got resolved should look at the thread "How to access the Registry".

Another problem was that the Backup and Restore facility was not working. This turned out to be an Acronis bug. I hadn't thought it was because I had uninstalled the program but a trace of it was still lurking somewhere. The solution was to apply a patch available at: http://kb.acronis.com/content/14741. (Full permissions have to be taken for HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID{B98A2BEA-7D42-4558-8BD1-832F41BAC6FD}\Instance\InitPropertyBag, and then returned to the System.) Backup and Restore worked immediately afterwards; there was no need to reboot.

So far, so good. But I still have a problem with a government interactive program called Basic PAYE Tools, provided by the UK Internal Revenue service (HMRC). When I clicked on it, the program label appeared centre screen but the rotating circle Wait symbol just kept revolving. There was also a small window to the northwest with the label "Update" but no other words.

I rebooted into Safe Mode with networking, and tried again with the same result. But I think something must have changed because when I went back into a normal reboot, and again clicked on the program icon, this time it did start, although the screen changed to the Safe Mode size and a black margin appeared on both sides of the screen. The program is usable, although navigation is very awkward and I had to plug in my username and password five times before I could upload the info to HMRC. I'll contact them, to see if there is a solution available and post anything useful that they say.

In the meantime, if anyone has any suggestions about this, I'd be grateful to get them.

Also, what other problems and glitches are likely to occur because of the failed upgrade?

Finally, there's the question of why the upgrade failed. I don't know for sure but I strongly suspect my Kaspersky antivirus program had something to do with it because I switched off the program for five hours and the Windows 10 installation seemed stable, but when I re-opened the lid of my laptop the following morning, the five hours were up, and the OS restarted itself several times. Also, on a number of occasions, the OS restarted just after a message appeared advising of an update available for Kaspersky.

Many thanks to ZigZag3143, Ramesh, and especially ElderN. I have marked all your replies as helpful.

Following ElderN's advice, I'll now open a new thread with a more relevant and helpful title.

Best wishes,

Robert

You did a very good job and stuck with it.

I learned a lot about this process too and that will help other folks later

Your backup and Restore used to work okay, right?

Are you able to get past this:

Then what exactly doesn't work keeping in mind that I can't see what you are seeing :-)

ZigZag and Ramesh (from earlier) usually have very helpful advice and I'm not sure what is going on with B&R so if I have no ideas about that one it might be good to start a fresh topic with just that affliction so more eyeballs will get on it (since it will be a "new" problem).

For your HMRC software I have no idea (just a Yank)...  you might check with them for help or maybe it needs to be reinstalled.

All the tasks have now been done, and the Windows10 ones deleted, so this aspect of the Rebuild seems to have been resolved. But I'm still left with my original problem of the Backup and Restore facility not working. Nothing happens when I click on either the heading or any of the subheadings.

On top of this a program I need for the Inland Revenue (Basic PAYE Tools) also has stopped working, I realized this morning. When I click on the desktop icon, an Update box opens with no writing in it, and the program seems to start but the go-around-circle symbol stays on interminably.

Good job.

First I'm wondering why you have so many tasks that are still afflicted...  Some users report that the RepairTasks thing fixes them right up so why didn't that do it for your system.

I think now you need to look at your list of broken tasks and figure out which ones are the "important" ones that would come with a fresh install of Windows - like the RegIdleBackup.  That comes with a fresh install of Windows and is an important task that you would want to have working.

Your list had as corrupt:

Task image corrupt: Microsoft\Windows\Registry\RegIdleBackup

So you've fixed that one and proved it works - good job.

Look at a couple more in your list:

Task image corrupt: Microsoft\Windows\Defrag\ScheduledDefrag

Task image corrupt: Microsoft\Windows\SystemRestore\SR

Task image corrupt: Microsoft\Windows\Time Synchronization\SynchronizeTime

If you look in the list of tasks from the RepairTasks ZIP folder you will find a folder and task inside for each of those so that means they come with a fresh install of Windows and would be considered important ones that need to be fixed (and they look important just by their name).

Notice some in the list say "Task not installed" and some say "Task image corrupt":

Task not installed: Microsoft\Windows\CertificateServicesClient\AikCertEnrollTask

Task not installed: Microsoft\Windows\CertificateServicesClient\CryptoPolicyTask

Task not installed: Microsoft\Windows\CertificateServicesClient\KeyPreGenTask

Task image corrupt: Microsoft\Windows\CertificateServicesClient\SystemTask

Task image corrupt: Microsoft\Windows\CertificateServicesClient\UserTask

It looks like you can fix the corrupt ones like you did RegIdleBackup, but there are some that say not installed so what are they and what are you going to do about those?

Well, if you read the Documentation tab on the RepairTasks page they tell you what those are and that they can be "left alone" and tells you how to delete them so they don't show up when you run the scan again:

https://repairtasks.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=Windows%2010%20only%20tasks

Those not installed look like some leftover collateral damage from switching back to Windows 7 (the afflicted process from Microsoft).  Whack 'em.

So maybe you just need to fix the corrupt ones and don't need to worry about the ones that are not installed (delete them) but you can perform a Google search on them if you are curious about them.

The good news is your list of afflicted tasks will be smaller when you get rid of the not installed ones.

Now you have some detective work and some leg work to do.

Oh boy!  What fun!