OnThePike

While overwhelmingly and unnecessarily convoluted, I believe the OP was "simply" attempting to seek resolution of an issue with respect to deleting a registry key using CCleaner. In particular, the following key (which is part of Norton Internet Security’s Norton 360 Backup Package): {00020424-0000-0000-C000-000000000046} The scenario is as follows: While scanning as usual, CCleaner displays a registry error that usually and ordinarily would be resolved by simply checking the “bad” key and attempting to delete it. CCleaner will then delete the registry key, however upon restart (or even recheck), the key will return because it’s locked by Norton as part of their tamper resistant permissions. This makes it impossible to use CCleaner to remove the entry, and the error will present itself upon each successive scanning of the registry. The reason I am posting under this particular post is because it’s the most current of the many other posts relating and pertaining to the very same issue throughout these forums. However, in an effort to avoid necroposting, I chose the most current post (and unfortunately, the most incoherent, but I digress). Because just about all of Norton is locked down (for safety and security reasons), deleting keys and/or files is almost impossible under normal operating conditions. Therefore, to remedy this situation, we must follow abnormal operating conditions; namely “Safe Mode”. Quite (and literally) simply, this issue can be resolved by restarting your computer in Safe Mode (or equivalent), running CCleaner in Safe Mode, deleting the offending key then restarting your computer. That’s pretty much it – problem solved. The following steps resolved the issue for me running MS Windows Vista Home Premium on an HP Pavillion. Your particular keystrokes may differ: Close all running programs including those within the taskbar. Open Task Manager and kill the explorer.exe process (so nothing performed to this point is saved). Open and run CCleaner to eliminate all junk up to this point, then close it. Restart your computer. Press F8 (or whatever your equivalent is) to access the Safe Mode start-up options and select Safe Mode. Simultaneously, press and hold CNTRL + ALT + DEL to bring up your Home Options Screen. Select Start Task Manager. File -> New Task (Run) and type ccleaner.exe Registry -> Scan for Issues When the offending key is returned, delete it as you normally would. Close CCleaner and restart your computer (by bringing up the Home Options Screen detailed above). You should now be free of the bad key and the problem should be permanently resolved. Hope this helps (1) clarify the original posting, and (2) help others who face the same problem. Jeff