Repairing Win XP Registry - Saving program info?

[tgabe213]

Not sure what version of XP were talking about. For a friend.

They receive a message of

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\windows\system32\config\system

You can attempt to repair this file by starting windows setup using the original setup CDROM
Select 'r' at the first screen to start repair.

He doesn't have a recovery disk. I'm going to burn an XP disc for him, and have him make backups of the current registry files, then copy over the new ones from the recovery disc. This should allow him to boot, but won't any of his programs be broken? Since they won't be in the new registry.

Ideas?

 

[gimp]

I believe that points to the HKLM\System part of the registry, which does not (I don't believe) hold any keys for applications. Only installed hardware and install information.

you may be able to do a repair install which should not affect any installed applications (been a while since I've done of those, so I can't remember for sure).

 

[tgabe213]

The unfortunate thing is I won't physically have the computer to repair. I don't know how tech savvy he is.