Posts tagged startup
A tutorial on msconfig – System Configuration
Jan 20th
msconfig is the Microsoft System Configuration Utility. In Windows Vista and Windows 7 it is called as ‘System Configuration’. This is a tool that comes with the Windows Operating System. For Windows 2000 users this tool can be downloaded from microsoft website. This is used to configure and maintain your Windows System. In this tutorial we can see how to use this tool.
To start this tool goto Start->Run and type ‘msconfig’. A new window with five tabs will open.
- General Tab: This tab has three sections. Normal Startup, Diagnostic Startup and Selective Startup. When Windows functions normally we use Normal Startup. When the system doesnt function properly, we can use diagnostic startup to diagnose the issue and to troubleshoot. If we want windows to start with specific programs then we can choose Selective Startup.
- Boot Tab: This tab shows the operating systems installed in the computer. Additionally we can choose options such as ‘safe Boot’, ‘Boot log’, ‘Time out delay’. If you are a new PC user then it is best to leave this tab without any changes.
- Services Tab: This tab lists all the services installed in this PC with the details such as whether the service is running or stopped etc. From here you can enable or disable services. You can check the ‘Hide all Microsoft services’, to hide all essential windows services so that you don’t change them by mistake. From here you can identify unknown services that take up your memory and stop them wherever necessary.
- Startup Tab: Startup tab shows the list of programs that starts automatically when Windows starts. All system tray programs and programs that run in background will also be listed here. You can see which of these services and programs you don’t need at startup and remove them accordingly. This will speed up your windows startup time.
- Tools Tab: In the tools tab you can see, System Information, Programs, System Restore etc.
Using ‘the last known good configuration’ in windows startup menu.
Dec 13th
Windows XP stands for Windows eXPerience. Sometimes you may experience strange things while using Windows XP. An allpctips member faced this problem.
She installed a new software in her computer. After the installation windows prompted ‘You have to restart your computer’, so she clicked on the ‘Yes’ button to restart the computer. But instead of rebooting, she only saw the infamous blue screen with some STOP errors.
Just as everyone else does, she restarted again and again in the hope that Windows XP will somehow restart successfully but she kept seeing the blue screen. After much frustration and a coffee, she remembered the ‘startup menu in windows‘ and restarted again. This time she pressed F8 to enter into the startup menu.
In the startup menu, she chose the ‘Safe mode’ thinking everything will be fine now. But to her surprise she still saw the blue screen again. Luckily for her, she remembered there are other options in the startup menu.
So she pressed the F8 key again and entered into the startup menu once again. This time instead of choosing safe mode, she chose ‘using the last known good configuration’ option in the startup menu. Hoooray, The computer started like a gem without any problems.
Therefore When you see the infamous blue screen at startup, before you decide to format your hard disk, try the ‘Using the last known good configuration’ from the startup menu.
What is a startup menu – A Tutorial
Dec 13th
Among the Windows operating system menus, ‘Startup menu‘ is one of the most important menu but least used menu. Generally this menu is not visible outside. Only if there is any problem this menu becomes visible.
This startup menu has the following startup items, Normal, Safe Mode, step by step, command prompt only etc. If you choose your preferred option the windows will boot accordingly.
The ’safe mode’ option in the startup menu is very important. If the computer hangs due to any hardware problems then you can use the ’safe mode’ to login and fix the problem. The usual drivers and programs will not run when computer is started in safe mode. In safe mode you can remove adware, spyware and malware.
If you want to give commands using DOS prompt then select the ‘Command Prompt only’ option.
If you want that the commands from config.sys and autoexec.bat to execute one by one then you can select the ‘Step by Step’ option in the startup menu. With this you can exactly pin point which command is causing the problem.
In the startup menu if you do not select any options within 30 seconds then windows will use the default option. The default option is the ‘Normal’ mode.
Now let us see how to bring the startup menu during booting. There are two ways. The first option is by pressing a key while the computer is booting and the second option is by bringing the startup menu automatically without pressing any button.
To bring the startup menu by pressing a key
Turn on your computer. The booting process will now begin. After the basic testing windows will show some system information. Now press the F8 key.
In the black window when you see a small line or square at teh top left corner of the screen you should press F8 key or Conrtol key based on the operating system you are using. If you are not sure try both.
To show startup menu every time the computer boots
In the above method, the startup menu will only appear if you pressed the right key at the right moment. If you missed then the windows will start booting in normal mode without showing the startup screen. But you can make startup window show everytime the windows boots.
The steps given below may differ a bit based on your operating system.
If you are using Windows 98/ME or XP the follow the steps below to show startup screen at every time the computer boots.
- Give ‘Start->Run’ command
- In the Run window type ‘Msconfig’ and press ‘enter’ key.
- The system configuration editor window will open. Windows 98/ME users click on ‘General’ tab and click ‘Advanced’ button and then select ‘Enable startup menu’. Windows XP users click on ‘boot.ini’ tab and select the SAFEBOOT check box.
- Click on ‘OK’ button
From now on whenever you start your computer it will show the startup menu.
In Windows 2000 there is no MSCONFIG utility. Therefore Windows 2000 users must use the control F8 key to enter startup menu.
If you are a Windows 2000 user and you want to download the MSCONFIG utility then you can download the MSCONFIG utility from http://www.drd.dyndns.org/softlib/utils/msconfig2k.zip
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