[emklein]

I have had the same problem for the past four months (ie...on startup I get the message: "One of the files containing the system's Registry data had to be recovered by use of a log or alternate copy. The recovery was successful."). This problem was driving me insane.

I am running XP professional SP1 and the problem did not have any other effect except for an annoyance factor (very much so in my case).

The problem was solved by deleting my current DDE Shares. Apparently there was some security access issue with one of them (to open DDE Share, click Start, and then click Run. In the Open box, type ddeshare.
A better and safer method would be to disable the Network DDE (ie. right click My Computer, select Manage/Services and Applications/Services, then select Network DDE and in the 'Sartup type' select 'Disable' in the dropdown box.
).
I have no use for the shares that were installed and don't know where they came from, I suspect they are system defaults?