Windows Registry Fix – The System Cannot Find The Path Specified

I received a comment on my Anet Computers Youtube channel pertaining to a video I made trying to help people get Windows 10 to detect their optical drive, with a windows registry fix. For whatever reason when you upgrade your computer from Windows 7 to Windows 10, Microsoft forgets you even have a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, optical drive, etc. However, the potential solution I gave may not always work.

This individual is receiving a “system cannot find the path specified” error message when trying to add a registry key in a command line. First thing is to make sure that you are using command prompt with administrative rights. You want to right click command prompt and choose “Run as administrator”.


“The system can’t find the path is all mine is saying it won’t confirm it?”

Mr. Potato

Trying to run certain windows executables without administrative rights will result in access denied or other errors. If this does not resolve your “the system cannot find the path specified” error, than perhaps there is something wrong with your environment variables. You can change to the exact directory where a windows executable is located.

For example on this Windows 10 x64 64 bit computer I am using, the following path is where reg.exe resides.

C:\Windows\SysWOW64

You could in a command prompt change to this directory using this command.

cd c:\Windows\SysWOW64

If you type in dir into this command prompt you should see a bunch of commands in this C:\Windows\SysWOW64 directory. Another way to find executubles and their path directory is to open up file explorer. Once in file explorer you can see for the command or executable that you are trying to run.

You can click on “This PC” and then enter in the command in a “Search This PC” box in upper right hand corner. This will search your entire Microsoft windows file system for whatever search term you provide. This can help you find the direct path for any commands that are getting this “the system cannot find the path specified” error.

This was a potential fix. There could be other issues causing your problems. However, trying to run a command directly from it’s path might solve your problem.

In extreme cases it is possible that malware, spyware, and virus is causing this problem. A solution would be to run malware, spyware, and anti-virus scans. Finally, you could try using a registry cleaner like CCleaner.

It is recommended that you always back up your data and backup your Microsoft windows registry when trying to troubleshoot registry problems.