The currently operating modem (COM 3) was once incorrectly installed to
COM 4. References to it appear in the registry as "modem #2"
Attempts to delete the tree in which these appear, or a specific entry
that
refers to "modem #2" generate and error message. Paraphrased, the error
says that the item cannot be deleted or the key is corrupt.
Why is this?
Probably something to do with virtualisation or the lack of proper
priviledges in general. Somthing I need to read up on.
Anyway, on XP, you would run a task as SYSTEM and obtain super priviledges
by using the task scheduler:
"at [now+1min] /interactive regedit" would do it. You'd have to fill in the
now+1min yourself though.
I find it easier to use this trick to start Taskmgr, because you can then
launch whatever you want from taskmgr via "file -> new task" (regedit, cmd)
and they all run as super-happy SYSTEM. You could kill off un-killable
processes with that one.
This doesn't work on Vista, so you can either create a service with "sc
create taskmgr binpath= c:\windows\system32\taskmgr.exe type= own type=
interact", which will create a service called taskmgr, with the "allow to
interact with desktop" set, and the user set to SYSTEM. You then start the
service and Vista tells you that a service wants to interact with you, you
accept and then you're taken to a blank desktop with this super-priviledged
taskmgr on it. A regedit run from there can look at probably anything you
want. HKLM>Security, the user's Protected Storage Subsystem etc.
What's even better though is that there's a tool that can do all this
messing about for you, and it does a better job (no weird alternate
desktop).
It's called psexec from SysInternals, and comes with pstools.
"psexec -s -i regedit" will give you a super-priviledged regedit so you can
do what you want.
Here's the page:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/PsExec.mspx
It was all so much easier on XP, but I'm pleased it's still possible.
