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alphapremium's avatar
alphapremium
Copper Contributor
Jul 26, 2024

Autoruns renders system unbootable

Autoruns renders system unbootable, while using it from within WinPE:

Autoruns -> Files -> Analyze Offline System...

Last version causing no trouble using it this way is 13.100.

 

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns

 

Running Autoruns from a fully installed system and using this method does not cause any problems so far.

Affected registry hives are SOFTWARE and SYSTEM.

Recovering the system or at least some entries is only successful with an (older) existing backup of the registry files.
The corrupted registry file SYSTEM even lost the computername. All information off the harddrives are lost too.

Registry Recon confirms it. All red entries have been damaged.

 

I am not sure where exactly i should report this.

It can easily be reproduced by running it under any WinPE, it happens every time i used it.

 

I like to use the newest versions under PE again.

Maybe there is a way to recover the lost entries.

 

I appreciate any help.

 

With kind regards

1 Reply

  • ValueMSCommunity's avatar
    ValueMSCommunity
    Copper Contributor
    Aug 05, 2025

    I had the same problem too.

    Windows 11 version: 26100.1742

    Autoruns64.exe version: 14.11.0.0

     

    Windows startup displayed errors like "Code integrity cannot be initialized (0xc0000034)." After a lengthy investigation, I discovered registry corruption, which led to an issue with Autoruns.
    I also discovered that Autoruns doesn't unload registry hives automatically after shutting down, and manually unloading them results in an error. This may have caused SYSTEM and SOFTWARE registry hive broken after rebooting.
    Honestly, this issue is really deadly, and it still exists after a year.

    Some example registry entries before running Autoruns:

    After running and rebooting:

     

     

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