Possible solution to iTunes registry permission problem (Vista)

Question

My problem seems to closely mirror many of the ones I've been reading about here and elsewhere on other forums. And at least one person had the same exact problem when I tried to update, install, or even uninstall iTunes 7.6
I kept getting an error that the registry key HKLM\Software\Classes\Interface{915DA835....blahblah} could not be opened, access denied etc. -- even though I was logged on as Admin and I tried running the iTunes package as Administrator.
I tried modifying the permissions for that key. No dice.
I tried a complete uninstall and registry dump of iTunes and QT-related keys -- I even used MS Windows Installer Utility. That didn't work. Moreover, when I tried to reinstall, I was locked out of other subkeys as well.
Then I was searching around MS's support forums and found this thread:
http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1423928&SiteID=1
There are detailed instructions (but not too complicated) to restore admin permission to the entire registry. I performed the first two steps of the instructions, and it worked fine.
1) Specifically, I downloaded and ran the utility software
2) Then created the .bat file using NotePad, pasted the command instructions and and saved the file
3) Created a System Restore Point and backed up my registry
4) Rebooted in safe mode with command prompt. I don't know if the safe mode reboot was necessary, but I wanted to make absolutely sure. (Note: the instructions say to "run from the elevated command prompt", which means running Command Prompt as Admin; I decided to use Safe Mode instead)
5) I ran the program +(remember where you save it!)+
c:\[dir where you saved it]>fixregistrypermissions.bat
-- it took a few minutes to run completely, restoring permission to all but but 4 registry keys, for some reason.
6) I restarted Vista normally (oddly, my system started running REAL SLOW; having just done all this last night, I'm not sure if this is now a new problem)
7) Made another System Restore Point, to be safe
8) _Uninstalled completely_ the remnants of iTunes and QT -- including Apple Mobile Device Support, Apple Software Update, Bonjour
9) Made another System Restore Point
10) Rebooted
11) Dumped any app data and folders related to iTunes (deleted AND empty recycle bin); I was not able to remove the Bonjour folder
12) Rebooted
13) Installed iTunes package (run as Administrator); I even ran it in XP Compatibility Mode, which resulted in a prompt that the program is supposed to run in Vista. OK, whatever.
14) Rebooted
15) Launched iTunes, launched QT. Worked fine.
16) Plugged in my Nano and iTunes and iTunes recognized it, no problem.
Hope this works for the rest of you...
PS: I forgot to mention that successfully reinstalled iTunes using the full software package download available at http://apple.com/downloads
I also disabled the automatic updates, which was how my problem started in the first place!

Answer 1

Try modifying the extension.
kwadz wrote:
Were you guys having problems with any other Windows apps touching the registry, too? I'm having a ton of these problems, mostly where my apps won't retain reg saved information like settings, etc. iTunes is the first place I noticed it, though. I also can't boot into Vista's safe mode without getting a crcdisk.sys error. Running the msft application to edit reg perms didn't help me as many of them failed.
Any ideas?
No problems that I can tell, though I came back to this thread to remind me how to fix it because iTunes started acting up again. <grr!>
But if you've tinkered with the registry before, that could cause a lot of problems. I would check with Microsoft about the "crcdisk.sys" error. Sorry, buy I don't know what that is.
As far as having to fix it this time around, good thing I still had the .bat file on my computer. I ran it again, tried "repair" of iTunes in the Control Panel instead of the laborious process of uninstall/reinstall. I have to reboot to see if that worked. :fingers crossed: