Hi Richard, once again thanks for the post. I figured that it wasn't the best solution but it is one that has worked for us. I am guessing the reason it is working for us is that we use a common image. As for it being a registry hive, there really was no threat of making things worse than they already were as we couldn't load the COMPONENTS hive at all and we couldn't perform updates.
If you would like, I will still upload what you requested and perhaps we can work through the real issues? I know there is a lot of system admins pulling their hair out over this issue and nobody seems to have resolved it so for their sanity i'm happy to try to work through the issue.
Regards,
Chris
Well....I would argue that sometimes having something set incorrectly can be worse than not having it set at all. I would still maintain that in theory, it could make things worse.
I can see that the chance of you having problems with it is extremely slim, and that it is actually quite a good fix for you. I do not contest that. To be honest, I do not see much need for you not to use this fix.
The thing I am really concerned about is future readers. This forum is primarily aimed at home users, and there will be almost nobody in the same situation as you, where the images are similar enough. The deal is, as a home user, this fix almost always ends up disasterously, and I'm really concerned about this, as I am in large part responsible for the content on this forum, and making sure that people understand that this is a really bad fix in almost any situations.
The problem you have where the hive is completely corrupt is extremely rare, and I can fix most corruptions really quickly, safely, and without the need to resort to this.
Please understand that I have absolutely no problem with you using this fix, or indeed it being recommended to other system admins who understand what they are getting into, I am really concerned about the home users who read this thread & end up using it when they shouldn't. I hope you can understand why I really want to get the other side of the argument in here, and again, I am really sorry. Believe me, I've had a home user replace a Windows 7 COMPONENTS hive from a Windows Vista computer. This stuff really happens.
Anyway, I hope you have a great day, and this fix solves your problem permenently :)
Richard