Reset the Registry and the File Permissions in Windows XP

You may need to reset the registry and file permissions if you experience Access is denied error when installing a Windows XP Service Pack or update. (Example: Service Pack 3 setup error. Access is denied.)

Note: Access denied errors can also be caused by third-party applications, especially anti-virus or anti-spyware applications. So, make sure that you close all the anti-virus and anti-spyware utilities temporarily and then install the Service Pack. This helps in most cases. You should reset the registry and the file permissions only if necessary.

Resetting the Registry and the File Permissions

Using SECEDIT.EXE in Windows XP Professional

In Windows XP Professional, you may use the following secedit command-line to reset the file and registry permissions to defaults.

secedit /configure /cfg %windir%\repair\secsetup.inf /db secsetup.sdb /verbose

For more information, see article How to reset security settings back to the defaults.

Using SubInACL

For Windows XP Home Edition (and Professional Edition), you may use the SubInACL tool to reset the registry and file permissions. Download and then install the Subinacl.exe (~370 KB) from Microsoft. SubInACL is a command-line tool that enables administrators to obtain security information about files, registry keys, etc.

Open Notepad, copy the commands below and save the file as reset.cmd. Double-click the file to run it. This script file may take a long time to run. Registry and file permissions in your system should be reset.

cd /d “%ProgramFiles%\Windows Resource Kits\Tools”
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE /grant=administrators=f
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CURRENT_USER /grant=administrators=f
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT /grant=administrators=f
subinacl /subdirectories %SystemDrive% /grant=administrators=f
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE /grant=system=f
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CURRENT_USER /grant=system=f
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT /grant=system=f
subinacl /subdirectories %SystemDrive% /grant=system=f

Note: If you’re seeing the error Service Pack 3 setup error. Access is denied when installing Windows XP Service Pack 3, to verify if the error is caused by incorrect registry permissions, open the file C:\Windows\Svcpack.log using Notepad and look for the text Access is denied or DoRegistryUpdates failed.

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27 Responses to “Reset the Registry and the File Permissions in Windows XP”

Ramesh Srinivasan

said this on Wednesday, October 7th 2009 10:16 am

SECEDIT.EXE isn’t available in Windows XP Home Edition, Jeff. Please use SubInACL instead.
Jeff Owen

said this on Tuesday, October 6th 2009 9:53 pm

I ran the reset.cmd just fine. However, I get to a point where the dos prompt shows:

c:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools>secedit /configure /cfg C:\Windows\repair\secsetup.inf /db secsetup.sdb /verbose
’secedit’ is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

I’m running Windows XP Home SP2 and trying desparately to upgrade to SP3, in the hopes this might get me closer to resolving issues with the computer just turning off with no warning (event viewer shows some HP Pci error message).
dave mellor

said this on Thursday, August 13th 2009 5:06 pm

Greetings Mr. Walker,

I’ve used this tool before to fix other ‘unfixable’ computers where the problem was due to the registry permissions (ie: Can’t install Flash on Internet Explorer) but for some reason I couldn’t get it to run this time around.

Sure enough, your comment on changing the double quotes was right on the money!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for taking the time to document the fix to the original fix that allows stuff like SP3 to finally install on a system that had been running Avast or to install a new version of Flash in IE7!

Cheers!

db mellor
Mark

said this on Sunday, August 2nd 2009 5:53 pm

Worked like a charm. Thanks!
srinath

said this on Tuesday, July 7th 2009 4:12 pm

Hi, SECEDIT- Dnt work
###########Use following###############
Gpupdate——–Refreshes local and Active Directory–based Group Policy settings, including security settings. This command supersedes the now obsolete /refreshpolicy option for the secedit command.
######http://srinathbugz.blogspot.com/###########
Nick

said this on Monday, February 9th 2009 12:39 pm

Thanks SKILLET that worked nicely…I changed the top line of the copy and pasted reset.cmd file and saved it…closed out of it and double clicked on the reset file on my desktop and it ran!
jill

said this on Wednesday, January 28th 2009 11:39 am

Skillet – thank you thank you thank you!! reset cmd is now running like mad with the change to the first line of the file. Hopefully I’ll now be able to load SP3. I had a hard drive failure and am starting from scratch – getting “access denied” has been VERY frustrating!

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