jmw07

I'm reluctant to repeat my episode mentioned before to confirm the facts, but as I recall that when it came to the 'fix', I only had one entry in the 'Group or user names' on the Permissions for Software - that was Everyone. Also on Advanced Security Settings for Software there was either no entry, or just the one: Everyone - Full Control. Finally I think the 'Inherit from parent ...' checkbox was unchecked, while the 'Replace permission entries ...' checkbox was checked. You could try again with these settings - but as I said before I'm no expert and can only say what worked for me.

I think the problem is due to a registry key permission in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software area. Unfortunately I don't know which one, but I had this experience. I had the same System Restore blank screen after editing the permissions for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software. In my case I think it was due to checking the 'Replace permission entries on all child objects with entries shown here that apply to child objects' box under Advanced settings. I fixed it by setting up this key to just have an 'Everyone' group name with Full Control, then again checking the 'Replace permission entries on all child objects with entries shown here that apply to child objects' box. I was able then to access System Restore and use it to restore to a point before I started to mess with the registry. As you can probably tell, I'm no expert on registry editing, so you can try this at your own risk - good luck!