So I tried to start up my computer today, as always, when I get this:

"WARNING: Windows has detected a registry/configuration error. Please choose, Command Prompt Only, and run SCANREG."

I try to do so... but scanreg doesn't work.

I've tried it with all sorts of things: "scanreg /fix" "scanreg /restore" "scanreg /?" "scanreg.exe" "scanreg /autorun".

I tried all of those in C:/, C:/WINDOWS/, and C:/WINDOWS/COMMAND.

I'm not exactly sure if that makes a difference, but it didn't work on any of them. I got a "Bad command or file name" every time.

Out of pure annoyance, I tried "scanreg /fixmystupidregistryalready!". This, obviously, didn't work.

And... I'm confused. It seems as though scanreg doesn't even exist on my computer. Help?

If it matters, I'm using Windows 98.

Was this done at a true dos prompt, or just a dos console within windows? This command must be done at true dos prompt, which can be achieved by rebooting and choosing restart in dos mode. However, you can also try scanregw , which will work in the window mode. Here is a site which lists some extra commands if you need them.Serenity Windows 98 Program's Command Line Parameters and Registry Settings (http://www.mvps.org/serenitymacros/winprogs.html)

Good Luck

I'm not sure how I couldn't have done it in a true dos prompt, since I can't even get to windows in the first place.

It just gives me a few BSODs, and then nothing happens when my background loads. It just freezes. I can't even do that CTRL+ALT+DEL thing that gets you to the task manager. I can, however, still move the mouse.

Ok, my mistake. Do you happen to have a boot disk ? Also, you did leave a space after scanreg and before the "/" ?

I did leave a space. I do have a boot disk, but it doesn't seem to want to work. It says something about how it's not detecting a C drive, and how I should run FDISK, then just... stops. When I restart the process, the same thing happens. (I don't have to restart the computer, it just boots me back to C:/)

I haven't tried running this FDISK thing yet... should I?

The weird thing is that I used scanreg to fix a different registry error on that same computer around 6 months ago. No idea why it doesn't want to work now.

How do I fix my computer when it reads registry/configuration error