Registry restore fail!

I (unwisely) decided to "fix" my registry. Hilarity ensued.

However, I did a backup - initiated by the program - before cleaning the registry. Then, when I had a problem, I tried to merge the backup. I got an error (attached). I tried importing the backup, and got the same error. I logged on as a Super Administrator, same thing. The computer still works. There are a few annoying bugs that appeared which I'd like to squash.

I don't see anyway forward. It looks like the ccleaner backup was corrupted during creation. Am I missing something? Do you have any advice?

TIA

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I suggest that you use 2 Windows built in tools, DISM, and then SFC, to check/repair your Windows installation.

These are 'go-to' tools that anyone techie will use now and again when Windows isn't working right for whatever reason. (and using a reg cleaner could be a good reason why).

The basic options are pretty simple to use, but they do run in a command window so there's no fancy graphics or buttons.

Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) checks the Windows 'image' stored on your machine, and repairs it if necessary.

After the image has been restored to a healthy state, you then have to use the System File Checker (SFC) tool to repair the current setup.

Here is the quick guide:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/using-system-file-checker-in-windows-10-365e0031-36b1-6031-f804-8fd86e0ef4ca

This goes into more detail, with some screenshots of what you will see, but maybe too much details about the various DISM options for what you need, you should only need use the "DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth" options:

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-use-dism-command-line-utility-repair-windows-10-image

Have patience with the tools, they may look as if they have 'stuck' and are doing nothing for a while, but that is normal.

Give each one <em>at least</em> 30 mins.

You can sometimes try "SFC /scannow" without using DISM first - but if the image is damaged then then SFC won't work on it's own.

So it's best to do both in the right order.

PS. It's best not to use any registry cleaner with Windows 10 (unless you know there is already a problem with the registry) the Win 10 registry changes too often, but I guess you have probably already decided that for yourself.

PPS. If the reg. entries that have been removed are also giving issues for installed applications rather than Windows itself then you are probably best re-installing the affected application.

Thanks for the suggestions.

sfc found corrupt files and repaired them. I looked at the log... gobbley gook.

But nothing was fixed. The problems are mild. Maybe I'll live with them for a while

Did you run DISM before SFC?

What kind of 'mild' problems are you seeing?

(It may simply be that some settings you had previously altered have now been set back to their defaults by the SFC repair).