How to Enable the Registry Editor When Disabled by Administrator

How to Enable the Registry Editor When Disabled by Administrator
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2008/12/23/how-to-enable-the-registry-edit
or-when-disabled-by-administrator/

Registry Editor, a main registry editing tool equipped in all versions
and editions of Windows operating system, can be disabled, blocked and
locked to prevent the RegEdit from been ran or executed by users in
order to protect important system registry. Other possibility of
Registry Editor been disabled is caused by virus or worm such as
W32/Brontok-C.

When Registry Editor is disabled, user unable and cannot open or run
Registry Editor anymore. Any attempt to run RegEdit.exe will return the
error "Registry editing has been disabled by your administrator". Hence
it's impossible to remove the restriction on Registry Editor usage by
using the Registry Editor itself. However, it's possible to use various
workaround to directly edit the registry to remove the policy that
blocks Registry Editor usage.

Enable Registry Editor using Local Group Policy Editor

For user using Windows XP Professional, Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows
Server 2003 or 2008 with Local Group Policy Editor and has access to an
administrative user account, user can change the registry editor options
in the Local Group Policy Editor.

Click on Start -> Run (or Start Search in Windows Vista).
Enter GPEdit.msc and then press Enter.
Navigate to the following location:
User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System

In the Settings pane, locate the Prevent access to registry editing
tools option, and then double-click on it to open the settings dialog.
Select Disabled or Not Configured.
Click on OK button.
Try to run RegEdit.exe, and if required (still blocking yet), restart
the computer.
VBS Script to Enable or Disable Registry Editor

Doug Knox has created a .vbs VB script that able to toggle between
enable or disable the Registry Editor. Right click to download and save
the regtools.vbs into a folder. Then double click on the VBS file to run
it.

The regtools.vbs VB script file will check for the appropriate value
related to disabling/enabling of Registry Editor. If the registry key is
not found, the key will be created to disable Registry Editor. If the
value was found, it will be toggled to its opposite state and you will
be informed that you need to log off and log back on or restart your
computer. All change by the script is made in
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System.

UnHookExec.inf by Symantec to Reset Registry Values to Default Settings

In many cases, disabling of Registry Editor is caused by virus, worm or
Trojan, which attempts to stop user from fixing any changes to the
registry, which normally affects changes to one or more of the
shell\open\command keys. For example, exefile\shell\open\command key is
changed, the virus, worm or Trojan threat will run each time that system
run any .exe file. As such, Symantec create a .inf script tool to reset
these registry values to their default settings.

WARNING: The UnHookExec.inf will reset registry keys and values related
to BAT, COM, EXE, PIF, REG and SCR extensions, beside re-enabling the
Registry Editor. Hence, users who just want to re-enable the Registry
Editor has to manually modify the .inf file to remove the unnecessary
commands.

Download the file UnHookExec.inf and save it to your Windows desktop.

Right-click the UnHookExec.inf file and click install. Action will be
taken immediately. No display, nor any notice or boxes will appear
before or after running. Try to run RegEdit.exe again, restart and
reboot PC if it's still blocked.