These methods will grant you permissions as SYSTEM. Please double check what you have typed before you press Enter!
Sometimes a protected key needs to be deleted. Windows won't let you. Normally this a good thing. There have been only two scenarios where I have needed to delete a key because of a conflict. I wasn't able to delete normally as an Admin. You have two options.
Recovery Tools command to enter the following:
diskpart
list volume
- Find your Windows volume letter. You'll need this to replace X
.
Optional: select volume #
- Replace # with the target Windows volume.
Optional: assign letter=W
- If no letter, assign it a random one.
exit
copy X:\Windows\System32\Utilman.exe X:\Utilman.exe
copy X:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe X:\Windows\System32\Utilman.exe
exit
Once Windows is booted, click the Ease of Access icon in the bottom right. This will open Command.
Now you can type in the command to delete the key.
Example: reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USB\VID_0ABC&PID_01A2"
Reboot into recovery and put Utilman back: copy C:\Utilman.exe C:\Windows\System32\Utilman.exe
This method does not work if your file system is encrypted out your control or is RAW due to the use of Intel Rapid Storage. Later versions of Windows appear to have closed this loophole. YMMV.
Download the setup and install Process Hacker​
Download the Process Hacker TrustedInstaller plugin named TrustedInstallerPlugin_x64.
Extract the TrustedInstallerPlugin.dll file from the zip file to C:\Program Files\Process Hacker 2\plugins
Start Process Hacker as an admin.
Click [Hacker] > [Run as Trusted Installer...]
In the box that appears, type in cmd.exe
Now you can type in the command to delete the key.
Example: reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USB\VID_0ABC&PID_01A2"