Q186897: PRB: "Failure Writing to the System Registry" Error Message

Article: Q186897
Product(s): Microsoft Visual Basic for Windows
Version(s): 5.0,6.0
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbsetup kbDSSTools kbVBp500 kbVBp600 kbGrpDSVB kbDSupport
Last Modified: 11-MAY-2001

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Visual Basic Learning Edition for Windows, versions 5.0, 6.0 
- Microsoft Visual Basic Professional Edition for Windows, versions 5.0, 6.0 
- Microsoft Visual Basic Enterprise Edition for Windows, versions 5.0, 6.0 
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SYMPTOMS
========

When you run a setup program that was created using the Application Setup
Wizard, you receive the following error message:

  Failure writing to the system registry. The registry may be corrupt, or
  you may not have the required permissions to write to the registry.

CAUSE
=====

As the error message indicates, the problem may be due to a corrupt registry or
incorrect permissions to write to the registry. In addition, the problem occurs
on computers running Windows 95 when the Setup program tries to add an entry to
a registry key and the key will exceed 64K in size as a result. Registry keys
are limited to 64K in Windows 95.

RESOLUTION
==========

When the problem occurs on a Windows 95 computer, it usually happens when Setup
tries to add entries to the following registry key:

  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SharedDLLs

To determine whether the SharedDLLs key is approaching the 64K limit, follow
these steps to export the key to the Desktop and look at the size of the
exported file:

1. Click the Start button, and then click Run.

2. In the Open box, type "regedit" (without the quotation marks), and then click
  OK.

3. On the Edit menu, click Find. In the Find What box, type "SharedDLLs"
  (without the quotation marks). Under Look At, select only the Keys check box,
  and then click Find Next.

4. On the Registry menu, click Export Registry File. In the Save In list, click
  Desktop. In the File Name box, type "MySharedDLLs" (without the quotation
  marks), and then click Save.

  This saves a copy of the SharedDLLs registry key to a file called
  MySharedDLLs.reg on the Desktop.

5. On the Desktop, right-click MySharedDLLs.reg, and then click Properties on
  the shortcut menu. Note the size of the file. If it is approximately 64K in
  size, the "Failure writing to the system registry" error message is being
  caused by a limitation of Windows 95.

  To work around the 64K limit, open the MySharedDLLs.reg file you created in
  step 4 in Notepad or Wordpad. Notice which programs have entries in the
  SharedDLLs key. If you notice file names from programs that you are no longer
  using, you may want to remove (uninstall) these programs to free up space in
  the registry key. If you have entries for files that no longer exist on the
  hard drive, you can remove the entries directly.

If you determine that the error message is not being caused by the 64K registry
key limit, try the following:

- In Windows NT or 2000, try running Setup while logged on the computer as a
  member of the Administrators group to determine whether there is a problem
  with permissions.


- Restore the registry file from a backup. For additional information, please
  see the "Restoring the Registry" Help topic in Regedit.exe or the "Restoring
  a Registry Key" Help topic in Regedt32.exe.

In addition, there is now a utility that can help you clean up the SharedDLLs key
in the registry. Please see the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article for
more information:

  Q217165 FILE: ShareDLL.exe File Checks the Size of the SharedDLLs Regist


Additional query words: capacity limitation

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Keywords          : kbsetup kbDSSTools kbVBp500 kbVBp600 kbGrpDSVB kbDSupport 
Technology        : kbVBSearch kbAudDeveloper kbZNotKeyword6 kbZNotKeyword2 kbVB500Search kbVB600Search kbVBA500 kbVBA600 kbVB500 kbVB600
Version           : :5.0,6.0
Issue type        : kbprb

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