can i do something in regedit so that "paint" loads up "paint.net" and not og paint?
You could create a paint.bat file in C:\Windows\System32 (usually the first dir in %PATH%) that calls Paint.net instead. Something like this should work:
"C:\Program Files\paint.net\paintdotnet.exe" %* Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths