Troubleshooting – Deleting undeletable registry keys

Problem: You’ve uninstalled an application from your computer, but the application has left behind some registry keys that you can’t delete with Registry Editor. 

Resolution: Here are three ways you might approach this problem:

1. Boot the computer into Safe Mode, open Registry Editor, and try deleting the keys.

2. Get the Windows Sysinternals utility Psexec and run the following command to launch Registry Editor with highest privileges:

psexec -s -i regedit.exe

3. Leave the registry keys alone unless you feel you have a valid reason for believing their presence can impact some aspect of the functionality of Windows or other installed applications on your computer.

Mitch Tulloch is a seven-time recipient of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award and widely recognized expert on Windows administration, deployment and virtualization. For more tips by Mitch you can follow him on Twitter or friend him on Facebook.

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