Fix: Can’t delete Avast Software Registry Key in Windows

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delete avast software registry key

Last week when I installed CCleaner on my system, it also installed Avast antivirus software stealthily, in the background. After I uninstalled Avast, a registry key named AVAST Software still remained in the registry, but it couldn’t be opened. When the AVAST Software branch was selected, it threw the following error:

Error Opening Key
AVAST Software cannot be opened.
An error is preventing this key from being opened.
Details: The system cannot find the file specified.

When I opened the Properties of the AVAST Software key, the Security tab was blank, showing the message: The requested security information is either unavailable or can’t be displayed.

I tried running Sysinternals RegDelNull to nuke the keys, but that didn’t help.

The same error can occur for AVG antivirus users.

Error Opening Key
AVG cannot be opened.
An error is preventing this key from being opened.
Details: The system cannot find the file specified.

Registry Reparse Point

Later I realized that the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\AVAST Software is a reparse point or registry link that links to the following key on Windows 64-bit systems:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\WOW6432Node\AVAST Software

But, since the Avast uninstaller had wiped out the above key, the reparse point still remains but is orphaned.

On Windows 32-bit systems, the reparse point and the target key paths are reversed.

However, once I knew it’s only a reparse point, the fix turned out to be very simple; you don’t need to tinker with the registry key permissions or ownership.Read more

Desktop New Menu Missing Word Document or Excel Worksheet

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The New menu that appears when you right-click on your Desktop has options or templates to create documents of a particular type quickly. For example, after you install Microsoft Office, the New menu shows Microsoft Word Document, Microsoft Excel Worksheet, Microsoft Access Database, and entries for other Office products installed in the system.

Sometimes the options Word Document, Excel Worksheet or PowerPoint Presentation may be missing in the New menu after upgrading your Office installation. To restore the entries back, short of repairing Microsoft Office, you can use the registry fix in this article.

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How to Auto Logoff Idle Users in Windows 10

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winexit logoff screensaver in windows 10

You may be wondering if Windows 10 can be configured to logoff users (instead of locking the workstation) after inactivity with the help of a screen saver. Screen savers kick in after the user remains idle or inactive for the specified time. When you resume from screen saver, you’re prompted for credentials to get back to your desktop.

The Windows 2003 Resource Kit Tools has a screen saver file winexit.scr, known as Windows Exit Screen saver or Logoff screen saver that does exactly that. However, the WinExit.scr screen saver throws the following error when you try to run it on Windows Vista and higher, including Windows 10.

Error encountered while creating registry section.

How to make a program which was developed 16 years back, work on Windows 10? This article tells you how to use the winexit.scr screen saver to log off a user account after the idle timeout in Windows 10.Read more

Show Full Path in the Address Bar for Special Folders in Windows 10

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show full path in address bar for special folders windows 10

Quick access contains links to Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Music, and Videos folders by default. When you access one of those special folder links via Quick access, the address bar shows the location as This PC → Documents, This PC → Desktop etc, instead of the absolute path to the Documents or the Desktop folder.

And, when you click on the address bar or press Alt + D, only the folder name – e.g., Desktop appears instead of its absolute path.

The same happens to other shell folders such as Documents, Pictures, Videos, Music, Downloads, etc.,

You may be wondering how to make Windows 10’s File Explorer show the full path of the shell folders. And, this article tells you how to accomplish that using the Windows Registry.

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How to Automatically Backup the Entire Registry in Windows

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RegIdleBackup - Registry Idle Backup Task - Scheduler Registry Backup

Every System Restore point or shadow copy maintains a complete backup of the registry hives. However, Windows 10/11 doesn’t automatically create System Restore points every day. Restore Points are created only when installing important updates or drivers.

Notwithstanding the System Restore’s excellent capabilities, relying upon System Restore as a file or registry backup method is not sensible. It’s because System Restore points are cleared on a FIFO basis once the space threshold is reached.

The registry files (hives) are located in the Windows\System32\Config folder. The hives are always in use when Windows is running. So, you’ll need a specialized program that uses Windows API or volume shadow to backup the hives.

This article discusses six different methods to completely backup your Windows registry hives.Read more

Notepad++ Tips: Find and Replace, and Text Manipulation Examples

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notepad++ icon

Notepad++ is an excellent light-weight text editor with many useful features. With Notepad++, you can find and replace text in the current file or in multiple files in a folder recursively. You can also find and replace text using regex.

This post has many Notepad++ find & replace examples and other useful Notepad++ tips for different scenarios.Read more

Open Command Prompt in Current Folder Using Keyboard Shortcut

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open command prompt in current folder - autohotkey

There are at least a couple of ways to open Command Prompt in the current folder path from a folder window. The two widely used options include running cmd.exe from the File Explorer address bar and using the Open Command window here option from the folder background context menu.

But, no built-in option exists to accomplish this using a keyboard shortcut or hotkey. This post tells you how to open Command Prompt (or admin Command Prompt) in the current directory path using the AutoHotkey automation tool.Read more

Set Landscape for a Single Page in a Word Document

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set selected page landscape same word document

To change the Word document orientation, you may have been using Page Setup to change the orientation to landscape or portrait for the entire document. Many users don’t know that Word also allows you to set a different orientation (landscape or portrait) for different pages within the same Word document.

This article tells how to make specific pages in your Word document to landscape and the rest of the pages to portrait orientation, or vice versa.Read more