I am unable to delete a registry key

Question

1-2 years ago I accidentally corrupted a program. I was unable to uninstall it so I delete all of its folders and the registries that I could find. Now I have come upon some registries of that same program. I am unable to delete them.

When I try to delete them an error message pops up say "Unable to delete all specified values". The program is Bitdefender.

Now I am trying to reinstall Bitdefender again, but these registries are blocking the installation. I think.

I think I have found why they are unable to be deleted. One of the owners of the folder in the Registry Editor is CREATOR OWNER. I am unable to delete it.

I can make a video showing what happens when I try to delete it if that will you you guys answer my question.

I am running a 64x Windows Vista Home Premium.

Solution

Firstly- if this problem started 1-2 years ago (and it was used for a while before that), then it could have been 3 or more years since the system was last installed. If that was my computer I would do a reinstall anyway. If the toilet's dirty, do you squirt some bleach in there then flush it, or spend many painful hours trying to clean it with a toothbrush? :P I don't get why people think they can easily fix registry problems manually- and I especially don't understand why people trust (and pay money for) a 3rd-party product to go flailing around the registry trying to "optimize" it. Those registry clean-up programs are digital snake oil- they'll never be able to accomplish what a simple reinstall can do, and they also risk introducing new problems.

Seriously though- if you want to keep the existing installation you need to TAKE OWNERSHIP of these registry keys. Forget logging on as administrator. That's the easy answer, and you probably are an administrator anyway.

Right click on the problem keys -> permissions -> advanced -> owner (then add yourself as the owner), then you can give yourself full write access to that key.

The rest is easy- it will work as usual.

I still think you'd be much better off doing a reinstall though! ;)

Comments

[DragonFury]

Yes, I did that, but CREATOR OWNER won't let me delete it.

[DragonFury]

I did try to add myself as the owner, but that didn't work. I cannot change the owner from CREATOR OWNER. It is blocking me.

[Austin ''Danger'' Powers]

Something isn't right with the OS. As an administrator you should be able to change the owner on any file or registry key you want. For me this would just be one more reason to do a quick wipe/reinstall. Nuke and pave only takes an afternoon. If that was my PC, I would have fixed it 1-2 years ago with a reinstall the instant I realized regular troubleshooting wasn't going to work. At this point you have a house with shaky foundations- might as well start from the ground up so you know you can trust it in future.

[DragonFury]

I would think about that. However, there are some programs I do not want to rebuy if I had to reinstall.

[Austin ''Danger'' Powers]

You shouldn't have to re-buy programs you already have. You already own the license. There are programs out there than can extract license keys from the registry- such as Recover Keys: recover-keys.com

[DragonFury]

It came preinstalled with the OS and I couldn't find it on the list of supported programs on [link](http:/recover-keys.com)_italic_bold'code'