I backed up my registry before I went playing in it and the long and short of it I made a mess so I right click on the .reg file in my documents and click merge and get a pop-up which says Windows cannot find '...registry copy.reg'. Make sure you type the name correctly, and then try again.

So I'm thinking it's because I changed the name of the .reg file right? So short of re-installing Windows is there anything else I can do? And will re-installing the OS even help?

You could try a system restore to before the prob?

As long as the reg backup is named "anything.reg", no quotes, and it shows the registry icon it should merge.

A format reinstall will fix just about any prob but you could try a repair install as a second last resort to a format reinstall.
Repair install XP

Oh cool great thanks! I'll try that and I'll be sure to tell you if it works or not.

Thanks for the link

RSBRC