"The specified file is not a registry script. You can import only registry files

10-21-03, 10:16 PM

Mark

Has anyone found a cause/solution to the following error
message?

"The specified file is not a registry script. You can
import only registry files"

I'm seeing this on a small number of win2k clients,
running a regedit -s regfile.reg via login script.
Hundreds of clients are fine, but a small number (<10) are
failing with the message above.

Thanks in advance for any helpful responses.

10-21-03, 10:36 PM

Wayne Tilton

"Mark" <anonymous> wrote in news:03a201c39818
$981d9b20$a401280a:

> Has anyone found a cause/solution to the following error
> message?
>
> "The specified file is not a registry script. You can
> import only registry files"
>
> I'm seeing this on a small number of win2k clients,
> running a regedit -s regfile.reg via login script.
> Hundreds of clients are fine, but a small number (<10) are
> failing with the message above.
>
> Thanks in advance for any helpful responses.
>

I just had the same thing happen to 6 out of 18,000 Win2k pro machine.
It turned out to be an old copy of regedit.exe in the \winnt\system32
directory. regedit.exe should actually reside in \winnt (or wherever %
systemroot% points) but \winnt\system32 is 1st in the path, so when the
V4 version of regedit.exe ran, it choaked on the version 5 regedit file.

The solution was twofold; remove the bogus regedit.exe from \winnt
\system32 and change the .reg file from V5 down to V4 format (change
"Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00" to "REGEDIT4" in the .reg file).

Wayne

10-21-03, 11:01 PM

John

Outstanding response Wayne!

I'll apply your solution tomorrow and report the outcome.

Thanks.

>-----Original Message-----
>"Mark" <anonymous> wrote in
news:03a201c39818
>$981d9b20$a401280a:
>
>> Has anyone found a cause/solution to the following
error
>> message?
>>
>> "The specified file is not a registry script. You can
>> import only registry files"
>>
>> I'm seeing this on a small number of win2k clients,
>> running a regedit -s regfile.reg via login script.
>> Hundreds of clients are fine, but a small number (<10)
are
>> failing with the message above.
>>
>> Thanks in advance for any helpful responses.
>>
>
>I just had the same thing happen to 6 out of 18,000 Win2k
pro machine.
>It turned out to be an old copy of regedit.exe in the
\winnt\system32
>directory. regedit.exe should actually reside in \winnt
(or wherever %
>systemroot% points) but \winnt\system32 is 1st in the
path, so when the
>V4 version of regedit.exe ran, it choaked on the version
5 regedit file.
>
>The solution was twofold; remove the bogus regedit.exe
from \winnt
>\system32 and change the .reg file from V5 down to V4
format (change
>"Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00" to "REGEDIT4" in
the .reg file).
>
>Wayne
>
>--
>Standard Disclaimer: I said it, they didn't, so blame me,
not them!
>Spam Avoidance: My reply address is invalid to confuse
the spambots.

10-24-03, 07:39 PM

John

Issue resolved. An old copy of regedit.exe was indeed
found at c:\winnt\system32. This was removed and the v5
copy at c:\winnt was allowed to process the script.

Thanks again Wayne.

Mark.
[..]

10-25-03, 07:31 PM

Torgeir Bakken (MVP)

Wayne Tilton wrote:

> The solution was twofold; remove the bogus regedit.exe from \winnt
> \system32 and change the .reg file from V5 down to V4 format (change
> "Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00" to "REGEDIT4" in the .reg file).

Note that V5 registry files are in Unicode format while V4 is in ASCII, so this
should also be changed in addition to the header text when converting a V5 file
to V4...

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