Backing up registry

I've been using 7 for about 2 weeks so still learning, but I ran into a problem with spybot and a couple other programs when the computer said I didn't have admin rights to back up the registry. Its weird because I can change the registry, just not back it up, at least with these programs. I was wondering how to safely access admin rights for this purpose without leaving the computer open to security problems. Thanks for any help.

Welcome to the forums alaskaferret . You may need to run Spybot S&D in administrator mode to get the registry backup feature working - just right click the application icon and select "run as administrator". Hopefully that should do the trick.

Okay now I feel silly! I didn't know I could do that. Thanks so much for the tip. I'll let you know one way or the other, after I get some sleep.

Check out ERUNT - it is certainly one of the best Registry backup and recovery programs around.

What a great little program ERUNT is, Thanks. And I was able to run spybot with admi rights by right clicking and choosing the run as admin option, which makes things a lot easier. I've been reading about security risks with actually making an account for admin, and at least until I know a little more about it, or need it, I'm not really interested in changing that, but its good to check for spyware/ malware once in a while.

If you find spybot in the start menu you can right-click on properties. Then under compatibility mode click "run as admin" so that when you click this shortcut it always starts in admin mode.

Do I need to give all security software admin rights? Firewall and anti virus as well? I've checked the admin box for malwarbytes and spybot but these programs actually remove stuff that comes from Facebook and twitter, others somewhat risky sites. I run these programs often.

Personally, I disabled UAC so I don't get the warnings but if the program requires admin rights to function properly then it seems to work the best if you just set it to run as an administrator in the compatibility settings.