Can't create a registry key under Eventlog and I am in administrators group

Question

I am troubleshooting an installer problem where it's giving an error writing to a registry key. So when I use the Registry Editor (regedit) to create the same key under

 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Eventlog

I get the following error:

Cannot create key: Error writing to the registry

Looking at the permissions, administrators have full access and I am a member of that group. I can create entries in other areas in the registry.

When I try to take ownership, I see my name already listed. But then I get an error:

Unable to set new owner on Eventlog. Insufficient system resources exist to complete the requested service. 

I tried after a new reboot. I turned off my firewall (Comodo).

Why can't I create a new key when I am an admin and permissions indicate I have full control?

Solution 1

The computer seems to be screwy. This happened after a Windows update which failed. I did a whole backup and it works now.

Solution 2

Try running C:\Windows\System32\regedt32.exe using Run As credentials of the built-in administrator account. Note that some (few) registry keys mostly related to system can be modified only be the built-in administrator account.

Also if you are on your company network, it could be a group policy that may be preventing you from modifying the key.

Best bet is to run the installer with Run-As credentials of the built-in administrator. If you do not remember its password, just reset it and do as above.

Comments

[Tony_Henrich]

I tried runas as administrator with same problem. It's a stand alone machine not connected to a domain. I tried the process on another machine and it worked.

[Tony_Henrich]

Is this dependnet on some local policy or service?