This is not a criticism, but a reminder to the reader, that the more info one can provide about what your are "running" in the way of a computer system and operating system... XP Home, or XP Pro, or Vista, etc., the better it is for those giving assistance. I use XP Home, and respond from that perspective only. My error was not stating that in my response...so,
I made the same glaring error in my closing words...I assumed ;(
"Don't worry about the reboot. Have your XP startup floppies at the ready...you will need 6 floppies and they go in one at a time, just follow the prompts to a reboot and startup... How to obtain Windows XP Setup boot disks Once you are back in business, get that registry cleaned up."
mhookem: "The six disks Al is referring to contains all the necessary files to start your PC all the way up to the actual installation of XP and you can use them to access the recovery console, allowing you to troubleshoot your PC."
"Users of Windows XP Home are out of luck: ASR is not available on their system." Windows XP: Set up and Use Automated System Recovery in Windows XP - HelpWithWindows.com
Thus the need for the XP Home Edition route: and the 6 floppy diskettes...
How to obtain Windows XP Setup boot disks
To: mhookem, et al; ... I wonder if there is any way to get some sort of an update to the XP-Home Edition that would compensate for the lack of the ASR...? There are literally, a pile of recovery progs out there, and I've got most of them, but I have yet to get one to work as well as the floppies from Microsoft. As well, all those ISO progs never work for me...and yes, I've been to quite a few sites to try to learn how to do it...but to no avail. Why can't these sites just make the copy to copy prog available rather than the user having to make one's own recovery disk? Every XP has the same setup configuration...and all you need are the files to get you going again, but what a rigamarole to make a burned recovery disk. Even supplying the recovery files and copying them to one's recovery disk would be a help...an ini file could tell the builder what and where... couldn't it...or am I not understanding what an ini file does?