If you have recently updated or upgraded to Windows 10 then while searching through Registry Editor, it will take forever to perform the search, and when you click cancel, the regedit.exe crashes. And when the Registry Editor crashes it gives an error message saying “The Registry editor has stopped working“. The mains issue seems to be the key length of the registry keys set to 255 bytes maximum. Now when this value is exceeded during the search, then the Regedit.exe crashes.
During the registry search, one or more value must have a length more than the 255 bytes, and once the subkey is found, the registry editor keeps running in an endless loop. When you try to cancel the search, the regedit.exe crashes because it doesn’t really have any other option. So without wasting any time let’s see how to Fix Regedit.exe Crashes when searching through Registry with the help of the below-listed guide.
Fix Regedit.exe Crashes when searching through Registry
Make sure to create a restore point just in case something goes wrong.
Contents
- Fix Regedit.exe Crashes when searching through Registry
- Method 1: Run SFC and DISM Tool
- Method 2: Replace regedit.exe
- Method 3: Use Third-Party Registry Editor
Method 1: Run SFC and DISM Tool
Open Command Prompt. The user can perform this step by searching for ‘cmd’ and then press Enter.
Now type the following in the cmd and hit enter:
Sfc /scannow sfc /scannow /offbootdir=c:\ /offwindir=c:\windows (If above fails then try this one)
Wait for the above process to finish and once done, restart your PC.
Again open cmd and type the following command and hit enter after each one:
Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
Let the DISM command run and wait for it to finish.
If the above command doesn’t work, then try on the below:
Dism /Image:C:\offline /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source:c:\test\mount\windows Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source:c:\test\mount\windows /LimitAccess
Note: Replace the C:\RepairSource\Windows with your repair source (Windows Installation or Recovery Disc).
- Reboot your PC to save changes and see if you’re able to Fix Regedit.exe Crashes when searching through Registry.
Method 2: Replace regedit.exe
First, navigate to the C:\Windows.old folder if the folder doesn’t exist, then continue.
If you don’t have the above folder, then you need to download the regedit_W10-1511-10240.zip.
Extract the above file on the desktop and then open Command Prompt. The user can perform this step by searching for ‘cmd’ and then press Enter.
Type the following command into cmd and hit Enter:
takeown /f “C:\Windows\regedit.exe”
icacls “C:\Windows\regedit.exe” /grant “%username%”:F
Press Windows Key + E to open File Explorer then navigate to C:\Windows folder.
Find regedit.exe then rename it to regeditOld.exe and then close the file explorer.
Now if you have C:\Windows.old\Windows folder then copy the regedit.exe from it to C:\Windows folder. If not, then copy the regedit.exe from the above-extracted zip file to C:\Windows folder.
8.Reboot your PC to save changes.
9.Launch Registry Editor and you could search for strings which have the size larger than 255 bytes.
Method 3: Use Third-Party Registry Editor
If you don’t want to follow such complex steps, you could easily use third party Registry Editor, which seems to work just fine and doesn’t have a 255-byte limit. Below are some of the popular third-party Registry Editors:
Regscanner
O&O RegEditor
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That’s it you have successfully Fix Regedit.exe Crashes when searching through Registry but if you still have any questions regarding this post then feel free to ask them in the comment’s section.
