Fix Windows Sockets Registry Entries Missing On Windows 10

Accessing the Internet is a crucial feature for your computer and unfortunately, a common error on Windows 10 displayed as “Windows Sockets Registry Entries Missing” prevents you from going online. That means you’ll want to fix this error as quickly as possible so you can get back to being able to use the Internet. Luckily for you, I’ve compiled this article with everything you’ll need to correct this error.

Understanding This Error

 

I like to start out many of these articles with a brief description of exactly what this error means as it will better help you fix this error if you know exactly what is going on. This error is a bit of a complex one, but I’ll do my best to simplify it.

Basically, some of the registry entries in your operating system are corrupt for whatever reason. Registry entries are a very broad term with Windows operating systems as it encompasses a large amount of code within the computer that have to do with settings and how the computer communicates with itself.

This particular missing registry entry is specific to the Internet as it has to do with Windows Sockets, or Winsock for short. Winsock is a built-in application on all Windows 10 systems that lets the Windows network software communicate with the network services. Simply put, it’s important to you connecting to the Internet, so you can see why this error disrupts this connection.

What is Causing It?

There can be many things that are causing your registry entries to be corrupt. Unfortunately, there is no immediate way to be able to diagnosis and pinpoint what exactly is causing this problem. This is common with many errors as it can be difficult to find exactly what is causing this error until you try solutions and then eliminate possible causes. Therefore, that’s what you’ll have to do, so now I’ll teach you how to do all of the solution techniques you’ll need.

“John D. Rockefeller wanted to dominated oil, but Microsoft wants it all, you name it: cable, media, banking, car dealerships.” – Ralph Nader

Solutions

Note that there are a lot of possible solutions and you should perform them in the order that they are given here. They may take a while, but it’s necessary for you to try them all and eventually one will correct this issue. After trying each step, restart your computer and attempt to connect to the Internet once again.

Many of these issues will be somewhat technical and you probably won’t understand all of the terminologies. That’s ok. I won’t necessarily be explaining why all of these solutions work, either, just know that they are proven methods that can help you fix this problem. Just follow these easy steps and you should have no problems. So, without further ado, let’s just get into these solutions.

Solution #1: Restart Router/Computer

The easiest, but not as effective, thing that you should try first is to just simply restart both your router and computer. Sometimes this may correct the issue and for how easy and quick it is, you should just try it. In the likely case that this doesn’t correct the issue, continue on with the steps below.

Solution #2: Delete Winsock keys from registry and reinstall TCP/IP

1. Press Windows Key + R and type in regedit. Press Enter.
2. This will open the Registry Editor. Once it dows, navigate to the following key on the left pane: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetServices
   
3. Locate Winsock and WinSock 2 keys, right click each of them and then select Export.
4. Enter a file name (whatever you want) and save them to a location that will be easy to find. These files will be used for backup if anything goes wrong. Now we can get to actually deleting them.
5. To do that, right-click each key just as you did before, but this time and choose Delete.
6. Close Registry Editor.

After deleting Winsock keys, we need to reinstall the TPC/IP. Here’s how to do that.

1. Press Windows Key + S, which will open up the Network and Sharing Center.
2. Your current connection should be listed on the right. Click it.
3. Select Properties->Install->Protocol->Add->Have disk.
4. In the copy manufacturer’s files from section, type in C:windowsinf and then click OK.
5. Select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and click OK.

Deleting your Winsock keys and then reinstalling your Internet protocol will correct this issue often as this issue is related to Winsock. However, if that doesn’t work, continue on for another solution that is related to Winsock.

Solution #3: Reset Winsock

 

1. Press Windows Key + X and choose Command Prompt (Admin) from the menu.
2. Once Command Prompt opens, type in netsh winsock reset and press Enter in order to run it. This will reset your Winsock.

Solution #4: Disable IPv6

IPv6 is the most recent version of Internet protocol, which provides an identification and location system for your specific computer, as well as regulating traffic across the Internet. Many users on Microsoft forums about this error have reported that disabling this feature has corrected the error for them. Here’s the simplest way to disable it.

1. Open Network and Sharing Center (Windows Key + S), and click your adapter on the right.
2. Click the Properties button.
3. Locate Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6) and right click on it. From this menu, click Disable.
4. Click the OK button.

Solution #5: Reset your network adapter

1. Once again, open the Network and Sharing Center.
2. Click Change adapter settings on the left.
3. Locate your network adapter, right click it and choose Disable.
   
4. Wait 30 seconds, and then right click your adapter again and choose Enable. This will completely reset your network adapter. If you want to learn what exactly a network adapter is, then check out this article.

Solution #6: Disable proxy

1. You guessed it; Open Network and Sharing Center and then select Internet Options from the menu.
2. Once this window opens, click on the Connections tab and select LAN settings.
3. Check the Proxy server box and make sure that Use a proxy server for your LAN isn’t checked.
4. Click OK to save changes.

Solution #7: Update/uninstall your drivers

Sometimes, this error can occur after updating to the latest version of Windows 10. This occurs because your drivers may need to be updated as well.  To download latest drivers visit your network card manufacturer’s website and download the latest drivers for your device.

If that doesn’t work, you can also remove your drivers from the Device Manager. Do that by following these steps.

1. Press Windows Key + X and choose Device Manager from the list.
2. Once Device Manager starts, locate your network drivers, right click them and choose Uninstall.
3. When you restart your computer, Windows 10 will automatically install the default driver and the one updated with the current software update. This is another way to make sure they are up-to-date if you don’t now your network card.

Solution #8: Use several other random commands

I won’t pretend to know why these commands work, but there are several random commands that you can enter that several people have credited with fixing this error. If you’ve gotten this far in the solutions and still haven’t corrected the error, I guess it’s at least worth a shot. The first one is called netsh int ipv4 install and here’s how to do it.

1. Press Windows Key + X and select Command Prompt (Admin).
2. Once Command Prompt starts, type in netsh int ipv4 install and press Enter to run it.
3. Close the Command Prompt and restart your computer.

Here are several others that you can try as well.

1. Once again, you’ll want to open up the command prompt by pressing the Windows Key + X.
2. Once Command Prompt starts, you need to enter the following lines. Press Enter after each line in order to run it `and then enter each in a row. Once they are all entered, restart your computer and this issue should be corrected.

• netcfg -d
• ipconfig /release
• ipconfig /renew
• ipconfig /flushdns
• ipconfig /registerdns

Solution #10: Obtain your IP address and DNS automatically

This is really the last thing that could be causing this error message. It can sometimes appear if your IP and DNS address configuration isn’t correct. To fix this issue, you’ll have to make sure your operating system is obtaining your IP address and DNS automatically. To do that, follow these steps:

1. Open Network and Sharing Center, click on your connection and click on Properties.
2. Select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click on Properties.
3. Make sure Obtain an IP address automatically and Obtain DNS server address automatically are selected.
4. Click OK to save changes.

If that doesn’t work, then manually enter the following DNS server addresses:

• Enter 8.8.8.8 as the Preferred DNS Server and 8.8.4.4 as Alternate DNS server. This is just another technical trick that the support group at Microsoft recommends to try.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are many possible solutions for this error and it can be a little bit complicated of one, so my best advice to you would just to be patient when going through all of these steps. You’ll notice on a majority of other errors the steps that you’ll need to go through are only a couple and should only take a couple of minutes. Not this error. Just prepare yourself mentality that this could possibly take up to an hour to correct, but eventually, if you go through all of the solutions that I provided then you should have no problem at fixing it.

So that’s all I have on how to fix Windows Sockets Registry Entries Missing for Windows 10. If you have any other additional questions or other solutions that you have had success with, let us know in the comment section below. Other than that, good luck with fixing this error and any other Windows error that you may encounter.