Is Vista The Worst Os Ever?

I've had a lot of help getting rid of malware and such on this site which I am VERY grateful for and the computer is running much better.

As i've been reading more and more however, this OS just #@^% *&%$! I mean I have to have permission just to look at the screen. My CD drive has not been working
so I go to the registry to delete some things that I found online that say it will make the drive work again, but guess what? Access is denied... when I run the comp as the admin... guess what? Still no access. I have tried changing all sorts of things and following all kinds of tutorials that people have posted online and not a single one of them has worked. I HATE this system and cannot wait to get something else.

 

Hi Evan.Glad your OS is running better.

Making changes to your Registry just because you read something on the Net is very risky.

If you have further problems,we here at CHF are happy to help you.

Just post one issue at a time.

 

What is it that you are trying to delete?
As DSTM says editing the registry is a dangerous game. I am guessing (as I dont know what keys you are trying to delete) that they are protected or system keys.
When you say Cd Drive is not working what exactly is it not doing - Opening, Closing, Reading Disks, Burning or all of them?

 

the CD drive will not read or do anything else... it will open and close, but it's got the exclamation point next to it, and it says that the driver basically isn't there. I don't have the disc, so I downloaded the driver, but that did nothing. Supposedly this is a very common issue just from what I had read.

It's been on a couple of sites to go to the registry and delete the upper filter and lower filter... supposedly that works... don't know, but the drive already doesn't work so there isn't much risk lol.

 

Well the filters you are talking about are not normally locked so humour me by going through the procedure again but this time follow my instructions.
As you have navigated your registry before we can skip that bit other than to say create a Restore Point or backup your registry before proceeding.
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11­CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} and check you are at the right subkey (there can be other instances of it) by looking the right pane at the Default data value, it should read DVD/CD-ROM and the class data is CDROM.

Now look for Upperfilters and LowerFilters in the right hand pane, if they are there right click on them and delete.
Reboot.

After you have humoured me by trying again (so I feel comfortable that you have the right keys) if they are locked then post back and I will walk you through taking ownership of them.

 

LOL I wish I could my friend, I have tried to run this thing about 5 different times... both in normal and safe mode... neither works and just says "This troubleshooter doesn't apply to this computer". It's really become a pain.

 

"unable to delete all specified values"

 

Taking ownership is two mouse clicks! Three if you count clicking 'OK' but if there is a ready made hack then all the better.

 

I really have to give that a chuckle ( Chuckle!) Everything is easy if you know how or, in this case, that you know that you need to do it at all.

 

upon trying to install it I get this "cannot import\\\\\blah blah takeownership.reg:Error accessing the registry"

 

OK lets try a new slant on this problem.
Open an elevated Command Prompt. (Start / All Programs / Accessories then right click on CMD and run as Administrator).
Type SFC /Scannow and press Enter. Take note that there is a space between the C and the /.
Once its finished navigate to C:/Windows/Logs/CBS/ cbs.log and post it here.
This may take a bit of time depending on what if any errors the File Checker finds so be patient.

 

"you must be an administrator running a console session in order to use the sfc utility"

Currently i'm running in safe mode with networking by the way.

 

Let me add that this computer has other issues... it was asking for passwords to do ANYTHING... I couldn't delete anything and had to run special programs to do so. I turned off the UAC thing... which I forgot how I did it now, but that got rid of all of the password issues and I can delete and uninstall programs at least now.

The wireless card WILL NOT work no matter what. It's been an issue at least as long as the CD drive has... it just won't connect and there's no reason why. As I believe as I had said before those 2 issues as well as trying to install my external CD drive (thinking maybe the drive itself was just shot) is also not possible and it says it needs the drivers for it... there are none... this is a plug and play device.

I don't know if any of this will help nail down the issue, BUT, I thought i'd give it a try.

Can't I just find my Windows XP disc and install it on here and get rid of this junk Vista system? (That is of course if I could find my XP disc lol)

 

Hi Evan,

I looks, to me, that it is time for a re-install.
Either (dare I say) Vista or another OS.

There are a range of Fixes here if you wish to give them a try:
http://support.microsoft.com/fixit/

But with so much wrong - a new start would be the obvious way to go.

If you decide to go down the re-install route you will need to backup the data that you value.
Don't forget to backup your email addresses.

 

unless I can reinstall without using the disc then i'm dead in the water Ken, not a single CD drive that I have here will work.... AND, I have no idea where the Vista disc is... i'm sure if I search long enough I could find an XP disc, but may not even be able to find that.

 

I would love to be able to try the link you gave me, but NOTHING will run! I have NO idea what the issue is. I've spent about a week with starbuck helping me to try to clean up the computer from malware and such and it still won't let it run.

 

Pity we didnt know this at the beginning of the post, no wonder we cannot solve your CD problem.

Will the machine not run at all in normal windows mode?

Do know how to get to the BIOS?

Do you have your Vista Disk or a recovery disk?