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Thursday, 28 March 2013

Windows: Boot into Safe Mode with MSConfig


Hitting the F8 key at the right moment while your PC is starting up is much more difficult on fast modern hardware. With boot times as low as a few seconds, the window hit the F8 key and bring up the safe boot menu is very small.  Practically impossible for most users unless you have the reflexes of a ninja.  



  • Go to Start , Run.
  • Type "msconfig" and press enter
  • Go to "Boot" tab, second one from left
  • and select Safe Boot

WindowsXP: Disable and remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notification


  • Launch Windows Task Manager.
  • End wgatray.exe process in Task Manager.
  • Restart Windows XP in Safe Mode.
  • Delete WgaTray.exe from c:\Windows\System32.
  • Delete WgaTray.exe from c:\Windows\System32\dllcache.
  • Lauch RegEdit.
  • Browse to the following location:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\
    Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Notify
  • Delete the folder ‘WgaLogon’ and all its contents
  • Reboot Windows XP.

WindowsXP: Choose the program you want to use to open this file


This error is normally given when you try to open any of drives on your computer using Windows XP.

To correct and solve this error, follow this steps:

1. Run Task Manager (Ctrl-Alt-Del or right click on Taskbar)
2. Stop wscript.exe process if available by highlighting the process name and clicking End          Process.
3. Then terminate explorer.exe process.
4. In Task Manager, click on File -> New Task (Run…).
5. Type “cmd” (without quotes) into the Open text box and click OK.
6. Type the following command one by one followed by hitting Enter key:

            del c:\autorun.* /f /s /q /a
            del d:\autorun.* /f /s /q /a
            del e:\autorun.* /f /s /q /a

c, d, e each represents drive letters on Windows system. If there are more drives or partitions available, continue to command by altering to other drive letter. Note that you must also clean the autorun files from USB flash drive or portable hard disk as the external drive may also be infected.
7. In Task Manager, click on File -> New Task (Run…).
8. Type “regedit” (without quotes) into the Open text box and click OK.
9. Navigate to the following registry key:            HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
10. Check if the value name and value data for the key is correct (the value data of userint.exe include the path which may be different than C drive, which is also valid, note also the comma which is also needed):

“Userinit”=”C:\WINDOWS\system32\userinit.exe,”
If the value is incorrent, modify it to the valid value data.