How to Rebuild the REG.DAT File
  
PSS ID Number: Q107674
Article last modified on 08-09-1995
 
6.00 6.00a 6.00c
 
WINDOWS
 

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The information in this article applies to:
 
 - Microsoft Word for Windows, versions 6.0, 6.0a, 6.0c
 - Microsoft Excel for Windows, version 5.0
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SUMMARY
=======
 
If your registration file, REG.DAT, becomes corrupted, rather than try to
correct it using REGEDIT, it may be easier to delete and rebuild the
REG.DAT file.
 
Steps to rebuild your registration database file:
 
 1. Edit the WIN.INI file and ensure that each the entry in the [embedding]
    section has the correct path.
 
 2. Ensure that there are no OLE application icons the Program Manager
    Startup group. No OLE applications should be set to launch
    automatically when Windows starts.
 
 3. Quit Windows.
 
 4. Rename the <windows>\REG.DAT file to any other name (where <windows> is
    the location of your Windows program directory). For example,
    rename REG.DAT to "C:\WINDOWS\REG.OLD".
 
 5. Restart Windows.
 
 6. In the File Manager, from the File menu, choose Search.
 
 7. In the Search For field, type "*.REG" (without the quotation marks).
 
 8. Search the entire Windows drive.
 
 9. Select one of the .REG files. From the Files menu select Associate,
    choose Browse and from the Windows directory choose REGEDIT.EXE from
    the list of programs. Choose OK.
 
10. In the Search Results box, double-click following files: (This action
    will merge the .REG file into the registration database. Click OK in
    the resulting info box.)
 
       \<windows>\SYSTEM\OLE 2.REG (Ignore others if any)
       \<windows>\SYSTEM\SETUP.REG
       \<windows>\MSAPPS\WORDART\WORDART2.REG
 
       (Wordart won't autoregister. See the "NOTE" at the end of this
       article concerning applications such as Wordart.)
 
11. Double-click any other registration files from applications that do not
    automatically register themselves. (Some OLE 1 applications like Word
    2.0 do not register themselves. If you are not sure whether an
    application autoregisters itself, double-click its registration file,
    which is usually found in its program directory.
 
12. Launch and close all your autoregistering OLE applications or double-
    click their registration files.
 
NOTE: Some of the Microsoft shared applications like Wordart, Graph,
and Equation Editor have .REG files that register the server path as
<windows>\MSAPPS\ShareAppDir. This may not be correct for your
installation. If your shared application is in a different directory,
open the corresponding .REG file in an text editor and modify the
server paths before merging the file into the registration database. If
there are problems with Wordart, Graph or Equation Editor and the .REG
file, the following error message may occur:
 
   The server application, source file, or item cannot be found.
   Make sure the application is properly installed, and that is
   has not been deleted, renamed, or moved
 
KBCategory: kbsetup kbole
KBSubcategory: kbole
Additional reference words: 6.00 6.00a 6.00c ole valid object 6.00c
winword linking corrupt embedding 5.00 excel
 
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Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1995.
