I have a program (Fix It Utilities 6) that keeps my computer clean and up to date, which also cleans/defrags my registry as well as several other areas of Windows XP. It deleted a few keys it apparently shouldn't have, & now a little box pops up that says "Preparing to Install" before I do ANYTHING. It takes awhile before it will do ANYTHING you want it to. I can't even right click on the desktop & have that little menu pop up until it thinks for a year & looks for the Missing registry keys, then the box pops up "Preparing to Install" & what seems like forever later, it does what you asked. I'm not computer illiterate and I know alot about fixing them, but this one is nuts! I put in my XP CD into the drive and figured I'd do a repair install. Won't work. Tried it within windows, and it just says "XP has encountered a problem and needs to close." Tried to boot it with the CD in the drive. Nothing. And yes, CD is 1st boot device. System Restore…Nothing. NO effect. WTF? What can I do?