ControlSet00x dealt with the LastKnownGood config and the capability to restore to it, IIRC
-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Michael Leone Sent: 20 November 2015 14:46 To: [email protected] Subject: [NTSysADM] Re: Where is the "path" variable stored, need to restore just that - SOLVED So I think I resolved it. The path had been coming up as just having Java in it, regardless of which user I logged in as. So I went in to the registry, and saw that the "Path" entry in CurrentControlSet and ControlSet001 were both set the same - "Path" key only had Java in it. ControlSet002, however, has a "Path" key with all the applications listed in it. Just what I was looking for. So I made a copy of the key (as a text file); copied the entries; added them in as System Environmental variables, and logged out and back in. And now the path looks as it should ... I've never been clear on the relationship between "CurrentControlSet" and Set001 and Set002. Time to go learn. It looks like Set002 is kept as the previous values of things? Dunno (yet). But things look like they should work now. Thanks everyone for looking. On Fri, Nov 20, 2015 at 8:38 AM, Michael Leone <[email protected]> wrote: > I had the strangest restore request I've ever gotten. Somehow, one of > my developers screwed up the "path" on one of our servers, and now > (they say) the "path" is empty. And that is causing problems (we use > PeopleSoft, which apparently needs to find things through the path, as > many applications do (or did)). > > No, I have no idea how they did that. Or why (well, I do know why - > they thought they were fixing some problem or other. But they just > made things exponentially worse) > > But now, if I go to that Win2008 R2 VM, and bring up a command prompt, > the "path" just shows as "C;\Program Files\Java\jre7\bin". And nothing > else. > > I recommended going through the list of installed program locations, > and adding those to the path. This was rejected. They think they might > miss something that way ... > > Where exactly is the path stored? Used to be, it was in the > autoexec.bat. And so I could restore an earlier version of that file, > and fix it from that. But that doesn't exist anymore, right? Isn't the > path constructed from the registry on boot these days? From here: > > HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session > Manager\Environment > > > What I don't want to do: > Perform a full BMR restore to a new VM (I don't want to take a chance > with screwing up the current VM, even as crippled as it is); boot the > new VM (presuming that it boots); read the path from there. > > (we use EMC Networker for backup, BTW) > > I don't think it's possible to restore just a specific hive from a > registry, and then read it, correct? I'd need to restore the whole VM. > > How would I even set the path, once I did know it? I know how to set > it via a GUI, after logging in as a specific user. But will that set > it for every user who logs in to the server? It should, right?
