Trying to import a registry file. Being told I "cannot import" because of an "error accessing registry". Anyone know what's going on?

Pupp

Member
I'd suggest making a copy of your current registry first, if you haven't done that yet.

Open the registry your trying to import, and see what's inside it.
 
So the file that I'm trying to import is actually a copy of my previous registry. I save a backup before I made any changes and I'd like to revert to my previous settings.
 

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Are you getting error messages? Reason why you want to go back to previous version? You really don't want to mess with the registry unless you know what you are doing. Doing it wrong can cause major windows problems
 

Pupp

Member
I think you just delete (or move), the current registry file and replace it with the one you want (in this case, the old backup).

I'm pretty sure when you import into the registry file, your just wanting to add new snippets of registries entries and "importing" isn't designed to overwrite current registry entries. So the error (I think), is being caused by you trying to rewrite the current registry file.

I'm pretty sure when I messed up my registry file a few years ago when I was trying to do something in it, and I'm pretty sure I just deleted the one I messed up and replaced it with the backup, and never bothered to try and import the old registry file.
 
Are you getting error messages? Reason why you want to go back to previous version? You really don't want to mess with the registry unless you know what you are doing. Doing it wrong can cause major windows problems

@johnb35 - so, initially I was getting this error message when playing Apex Legends. It would crash my game (but not my computer) and I'd have to restart the application. Tried the usual fixes, updated my graphics drivers and made sure DirectX was the most recent version. Became so frequent that I started looking for a solution and had a friend recommend me this video. Everything was working out okay for a bit but sure enough, my game started crashing again. Except this time it wouldn't just crash the application, my whole computer would freeze up and I'd have to manually restart.

I saved a backup registry file like the video suggested but when I tried to import I ran into the issue that I mentioned in my OP. Tried deleting the registry files I added (after watch the video) but it gave all my video games a bad stutter. Then tried a system restore and here I am. The files are still in my registry and my game is still crashing and freezing my computer.

Realize I definitely should have done a bit more research before screwing with my registry. Any suggestions?

Edit: The registry folder that I edited currently looks like this (https://ibb.co/ZhhNyzw). I added "TdrLevel" according to the YouTube video, and the "UnsupportedMonitorModesAllowed" magically appeared. No other issues because Apex Legends crashing. Windows and other games are running fine.
 
Last edited:
Do a system restore to before you made the changes.

Gave that a go, didn't seem to change anything. The changes I made to my registry remained. Should they have been removed? Just assumed changes to the registry weren't undone by System Restores.
 
Last edited:

Darren

Moderator
Staff member
Might need to just do a "Reset this PC" from Recovery in Settings or do a full windows reinstall.

Jacking with your registry is 95 percent of the time a bad idea.
 

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Is that essentially a reformat?
You will have the option to ether save your personal files or not save your personal files, but it will basically reinstall the os back to original. All programs will be gone so you would have to reinstall those afterwards.
 
Top