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Failed to Update the System Registry - REGEDIT

Brendan Nyhan
Updated

ERROR: 

Failed to update the system registry. Please try using REGEDIT.
– Click OK twice and the program starts to work.


SOLUTION: 

Quick Fix Solutions
Go to desktop Icon and right click and chose “run as administrator”

OR

Go to the ‘Start’ menu and in the search box type “regedit”. There should now be a program called regedit in the menu. Just highlight the icon, right click the mouse, go to “properties” and check the “Run as Administrator” under Compatibility.

Full Fix Solution
If you installed nQuery as administrator and then try to run nQuery as a regular user, then you might not have full access to certain areas in the registry that nQuery accesses during program launch. Sometimes even administrators will not have full permission to access the registry.

You can click OK to the message and carry on using the program, but to avoid seeing the message every time you start nQuery you would have to give user access to the following areas in the registry:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.nqa
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.nqd
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.nqr
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\nQueryAdvisor.DatEntrDocument
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\nQueryAdvisor.Document
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{32681D62-DAA8-11D1-BCA7-540611C10000}
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{32681D62-DAA8-11D1-BCA7-540611C10001}
and sub keys thereof; plus the above keys are copied into HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\.nqa
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\.nqd
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\.nqr
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\nQueryAdvisor.DatEntrDocument
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\nQueryAdvisor.Document
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{32681D62-DAA8-11D1-BCA7-540611C10000}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{32681D62-DAA8-11D1-BCA7-540611C10001}

  1. Go to the ‘Start’ menu and in the search box type “regedit”. There should now be a program called regedit in the menu. Click on this icon to start the program.
  2. You should see a set of folders in a window on the left.
  3. Navigate down through the folders until you reach this folder: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.nqa
  4. With this folder selected select Edit -> Permissions… in the menu at the top.
  5. In the new window you should see a list of users. If your name is in this list select it and skip to step 8). If not, click on Add.
  6. In the box in the new window type in your username. Then press Check Names. Your full username should now be displayed. Click Ok. 
  7. Now your name should be listed so select it.
  8. In the lower box you should see a column of check boxes. Under the heading “Allow” tick all of the boxes. Then press Apply and Ok.