Windows 8.1 automatic repair loop - repair registry

Question

In this question I asked if it's possible to enable system protection from the command prompt. There hasn't been any progress toward doing that, so I thought I'd ask specifically about repairing the registry myself.

State of my computer: Stuck in an automatic repair loop, can get to command prompt and regedit. The only error that log files show is that there is some corruption in the registry.

I also have a USB drive with Window 8 installation software on it

What tools can I use to determine which registry entry(s) is corrupt? Are there any tools I can use which should be able to automatically repair/quarantine corrupt registry entries?

From what I've found online, scanreg.exe and scanregw.exe look like they would be helpful, but neither one seems to be available from the command prompt I can access.

If nothing else, is there a list of registry keys that Windows goes through when booting up? If all else fails, I could simply start at the top of the list and work my way down until I find the offending key. Windows fails pretty quickly, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's fairly high on the list.

Answer 1

Can you get to System Restore from Safe Mode so that you can restore to an earlier state? See http://www.7tutorials.com/5-ways-boot-safe-mode-windows-8-windows-81

Sometimes it's difficult to get to Safe Mode. One way is to purposely interrupt the boot cycle by holding the power button down for five seconds once you see windows starting to boot -- you may need to do this two or three times, but eventually, Windows will give you a choice of starting in Safe Mode. This might cause errors on the HDD, though, so do a disk scan afterwards.