Windows Fixes

Add Group Policy Editor to Windows
Load Command prompt as administrator and run the following two lines:

FOR %F IN ("%SystemRoot%\servicing\Packages\Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy-ClientTools-Package~*.mum") DO (DISM /Online /NoRestart /Add-Package:"%F")

FOR %F IN ("%SystemRoot%\servicing\Packages\Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy-ClientExtensions-Package~*.mum") DO (DISM /Online /NoRestart /Add-package:"%F")

Windows Registry files for various problems

Hidden Network Shares can be a problem because they allow anyone logged into your computer remotely to have acces to everything. These reg files disable and enable them.
hidden network shares - disable.reg + hidden network shares - enable.reg

Windows Indexing Service can be useful but can also slow down your computer. These reg files tell it to wether or not to index the file system while you are actively working on the computer.
Indexer_Backoff_Disable.reg + Indexer_Backoff_Enable.reg

Notepad++ is a great text editor but I have one problem with it, I like "right click > open with Notepad++" to have the "+" as the hotkey but the default is "n". This reg file fixes that.
notepad++.reg
This may not work for every computer if the hex key is different. The other method is to run regedit, search for "&Notepad++" then move the "&" from in front of the "N" to in front of the "+".

Problem: "This copy of Windows must be activated before you can log on."

Power on the PC and press F8 right before Windows begins to load. Select "Safe mode with command prompt". Once the Command prompt loads, type in "explorer" to start Windows within Safe mode.

Now click on "Start" and in the "Run" box type:
rundll32.exe syssetup,SetupOobeBnk

*NOTES: The "Oo"'s in Oobe are "oh's" - not "zero's". There is one space after rundll32.exe. It is case sensitive.
This will re-set activation to 30 days

Once more, click on "Start" then go to the "Run" box and type in "Regedit". Make sure that in Regedit you are highlighting "My
Computer" at the very top. Now go up to "Edit" then "Find" and type in "wpaevents" then press Enter. Right click on the "wpaevents" folder and go down to "Permissions". Highlight "User" and place a check mark in the box labeled "full control". Click "Apply" and exit regedit.

Now double click "My Computer". Right click the C: drive and go down to "Properties". Now click on the "Security" tab and modify "User", "Administrator", and "System" so that they all have "Full control". Click "Apply" and reboot the PC.

Now Windows activation will run and the PC will become usable again.

Problem: "Windows XP registry corrupt: (...\system32\config\... error)"

1. First you must load a seperate operating system to access the hard drive without booting to it: A Linux Live Disk, a windows system install cd/dvd that has system recovery, or take out the hard drive and connect it to another computer.
2. On the hard drive with the corrupt registry go to \windows\system32\config
3. Create a backup folder and name it "backup"
4. Move 5 files named system, software, security, sam and default into the "backup" folder.

5. Now go to \System Volume Information\_restore\ (or \system~1\_resto~1\ if you are in dos)
6. There should be a large number of folders that start with RP, find the highest number and go into that folder.
7. Copy 5 files named _registry_machine_system, _registry_machine_software, _registry_machine_security, _registry_machine_sam and _registry_user_.default to the \windows\system32\config folder.
8. In the \windows\system32\config folder, rename the 5 files you copied there removing the _registry_machine_ and _registry_user_. so you end up with system, software, security, sam and default.
9. Restart the computer.
10. If you still get the ...\system32\config\... error, start over at step 5 choosing a lower RP number. Check the date of the rp files to find one a day or two before you first got the error.