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I am troubleshooting an installer problem where it's giving an error writing to a registry key. So when I use the Registry Editor (regedit) to create the same key under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Eventlog, I get a "Cannot create key: Error writing to the registry". Looking at the permissions, administrators have full access and I am a member of that group. I can create entries in other areas in the registry.

When I try to take ownership, I see my name already listed. But then I get an error "Unable to set new owner on Eventlog. Insufficient system resources exist to complete the requested service". I tried after a new reboot. I turned off my firewall (Comodo).

Why can't I create a new key when I am an admin and permissions indicate I have full control?

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Try running c:\Windows\System32\regedt32.exe using Run As credentials of the built-in administrator account. Note that some (few) registry keys mostly related to system can be modified only be the built-in administrator account.

Also if you are on your company network, it could be a group policy that may be preventing you from modifying the key.

Best bet is to run the installer with Run-As credentials of the built-in administrator. If you do not remember its password, just reset it and do as above.

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I tried runas as administrator with same problem. It's a stand alone machine not connected to a domain. I tried the process on another machine and it worked. – Tony_Henrich Jan 14 '10 at 8:27
Is this dependnet on some local policy or service? – Tony_Henrich Jan 14 '10 at 8:31
are you sure that administrator is the builtin administrator? Check in Administrative Tools -> local security settings that "Administrative account status" is 'Enabled'. The name you see in 'Rename Administrator account' is the built in administrator. – Ganesh R. Jan 14 '10 at 12:28
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The computer seems to be screwy. This happened after a Windows update which failed. I did a whole backup and it works now.

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Does not work, seems M$ have added restrictions to some registry keys in Vista, 2008 server and Windows 7, this breaks any vbscript trying to create sub keys, scripts that have worked for the last 8 years ! so far I have not been able to find a solution to this.

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