Control widows start-up by editing boot.ini

Those of us who like to experiment with our pcs have atleast once installed more than one operating systems.In good old days many had windows 98 installed on their pcs along with windows XP, as they couldnt shift to XP overnight.
There are two files that play major role in boot-up process of your windows pc.

1. NTLDR
2. Boot.ini

If you have only one operating system then there is no need to call boot.ini ,the operating system is loaded by NTLDR(BCD for vista) itself. But if you have more than one operating systems then you probably have seen boot.ini in action.It lists all operating systems so that the user can select any one to boot.
But there is one little problem as boot.ini doesnt take into account the frequency with which you use a perticular operating system, it lists operating systems starting from last installed.Now if you just switch ON the pc then boot.ini will highlight that particular operating system(XP64 in my case) and wait for for 30 seconds, with countdown showing you how long you have got to make a choice from the menu. After the 30 seconds it boots into that operating system and leaves you cursing.So with two operating systems on your pc you have no choice but to wait till boot.ini appears and asks you select your preferred operating system or you have to restart (and/or curse).
So how to fix this issue?
Simple. As windows is designed to be extreme user friendly(though it doesnt come that way by default) you can easily edit boot.ini file to change the list order.
Just follow these simple steps:

• Where to find?

Right click "My computer" icon and select properties.
Select "Advanced" tab.
Select "system start-up and recovery"(last one) and click "settings"
Now you will see some highlighted text and "Edit" button below that.
Click "Edit"
you are done.Now to set/change the priority you will have to edit this file.

Word of Caution:
Before editing just copy all the contents and paste in notepad and save with easily recallable name as back up measure in case you screw up. If you do just copy and again paste it at original location.

• Editing Files

I have shown below the boot.ini file for my pc having windows xp64 and media center editions.
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP media center
Edition" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windows XP64 Professional" /fastdetect

This file contains two sections

1. boot loader :

• Time out: this specifies the countdown time.You can just increase or decrease by entering some value like 20 or 40 . Now if all you want is the menu to stay until you make a choice then enter "-1" (without quotes of course!).
• default :specifies which operating system is used as default and you can easily change that. e.g if i want media center to boot then i'll just enter "1" instead of "2" default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

1. operating systems: this specifies the operating systems that are present on your machine. "multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1) " the thing we are interested in is the last one .

• The "partition(x)" value specifies the number of the partition on which a particular operating system is installed.

You are done. Next time when you boot your PC you wont have to wait for making any choice your favorite operating system will get loaded automatically as the timer ends.

Now you are wondering (may be) why i have used red color for "fastdetect".
If you are interested then read on:

• fastdetect is one of many switches that are used to customize boot.ini file. This particular switch helps windows to boot faster by disabling detection of parallel and serial devices.
• If you want to see what happens behind splash screen then just erase "fastdetect" and put "SOS" instead.
• And you will see windows loading all the drivers and checking you disks instead of that pathetic progress indicator.

P.S: I have again used red color for switches. As there are many switches that allow you to control the start-up if you are interested i can provide full list.Just leave a comment.

fun(?) with BLUE SCREEN

What is the most DREADED pre-enabled feature of any windows installations?

yes you are right the great "BSOD"

If you are one of few lucky users who havent had it for a long time then here is a way to "CREATE" BSOD if you are really missing it.

1. Launch the Registry Editor (Regedit.exe).
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\i8042prt\Parameters.
3. Go to Edit, select New | DWORD Value and name the new value CrashOnCtrlScroll.
4. Double-click the CrashOnCtrlScroll DWORD Value, type 1 in the Value Data textbox, and click OK.
5. Close the Registry Editor and restart Windows XP.
(do it when your friend is not looking)

When you want to cause a BSOD, press and hold down the right [Ctrl] key of your keyboard, and then tap the [ScrollLock] key twice. Now you should see the BSOD.

problem:

your(or your friends) system may reboot(shit) instead of displaying the BSOD,
and you'll lose all the fun.

solution:
disable the Automatically Restart setting in the System Properties dialog box.

how to:
1. Press [Windows]-Break.
2. Select the Advanced tab.
3. Click the Settings button in the Startup And Recovery panel.
4. Clear the Automatically Restart check box in the System Failure panel.
5. Click OK twice.

Now that fun is over(with your friend looking sick) disable the BSOD feature:

1. Launch the Registry Editor (Regedit.exe).
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\i8042prt\Parameters.
3. Select the CrashOnCtrlScroll value, pull down the Edit menu, and select the Delete command.
4. Close the Registry Editor and restart Windows XP.

RETSORE:back up your valuable XP

well most of you people already know this but there still few out there in the wild
who havent used this a single time.
As no antivirus is 100% perfect(no matter what the companies claim), it is good
to protect yourself by backing up your valuable data. In case you get infected you
can just then restore your system to some previous date.

win XP has a really great tool for the same purpose.you dont really need any
dedicated backup utility (unless you truly welcome viruses by dozens every day).

• click "start"
  
• click "RUN"
• type "restore"

a screen as shown above will appear. double click the highlighted and next window will
appear.
select second option as shown another window will appear(hence the name "windows")
enter any name you like in the box shown , click create and you are done.
do this at least once a day.

next time when you get infected just repeat above procedure till second window and there
chose first option instead of second and chose the date and time from next window.
click restore and sit back your system will restart and will be(hopefully) virus free
if it wasnt infected back then.

this is especially useful where you might need to edit registry.
just create a restore point before editing registry.

e.g changing text on start button

start button trick: change text

fed up with the boring "start" button?
here is how you can use "your name" instead of "start".
there are two simple steps involved but as you have to edit registry in second step
better back your system in case you screw up something. Best way under winXP is
to create a restore point . and in case if you dont know how(great!) read this.

Step 1 - Modify Explorer.exe File

In order to make the changes, the file explorer.exe located at C:\Windows needs to be edited. Since explorer.exe is a binary file it requires a special editor.for that you will need "Resource Hacker".
"Resource HackerTM" is a freeware utility to view, modify, rename, add, delete and extract resources in 32bit Windows executables and resource files (*.res).
It incorporates an internal resource script compiler and decompiler and works on Microsoft Windows 95/98/ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP operating systems.

get it from here

The first step is to make a backup copy of the file explorer.exe located at C:\Windows\explorer. Place it in a folder somewhere on your hard drive where it will be safe. Start Resource Hacker and open explorer.exe located at C:\Windows\explorer.exe.

The category we are going to be using is "String Table". Expand it by clicking the plus sign then navigate down to and expand string 37 followed by highlighting 1033. If you are using the Classic Layout rather than the XP Layout, use number 38. The right hand pane will display the stringtable. We’re going to modify item 578(change all "start" words if you like and have time), currently showing the word “start” just as it displays on the current Start button.

There is no magic here. Just double click on the word “start” so that it’s highlighted, making sure the quotation marks are not part of the highlight. They need to remain in place, surrounding the new text that you’ll type. Go ahead and type your new entry. In my case I used "onkar"

You’ll notice that after the new text string has been entered the Compile Script button has
become active. Click Compile Script and then save the altered file using the Save As command on the File Menu. Do not use the Save command – Make sure to use the Save As command and choose a name(better explorer2.exe) for the file. Save the newly named file to C:\Windows.


Step 2 – Modify the Registry

!!!make a backup of your registry before making changes!!!

Now that the modified explorer2.exe has been created it’s necessary to modify the registry so the file will be recognized when the user logs on to the system. If you don’t know how to access the registry then let me tell you its really difficult and involves complicated steps as follows:

1.click "start"
2.click "run"
3.type"regedit" (too difficult isnt it?)

now navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\ Windows NT\ CurrentVersion\ Winlogon

In the right pane, double click the "Shell" entry to open the Edit String dialog box. In Value data: line, enter the name that was used to save the modified explorer2.exe file.
Click OK.

Close Registry Editor and either log off the system and log back in, or reboot the entire system if that’s your preference.
If all went as planned you should see your new Start button with the revised text.

Faster Win XP boot

everyone must know this. has reduced my XP boot time by 10 seconds(almost 15%)

Boot Winxp Fast

Follow the following steps

1. Open notepad.exe, type "del c:\windows\prefetch\ntosboot-*.* /q" (without the quotes) & save as "ntosboot.bat" in c:\
2. From the Start menu, select "Run..." & type "gpedit.msc".
3. Double click "Windows Settings" under "Computer Configuration" and double click again on "Shutdown" in the right window.
4. In the new window, click "add", "Browse", locate your "ntosboot.bat" file & click "Open".
5. Click "OK", "Apply" & "OK" once again to exit.
6. From the Start menu, select "Run..." & type "devmgmt.msc".
7. Double click on "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers"
8. Right click on "Primary IDE Channel" and select "Properties".
9. Select the "Advanced Settings" tab then on the device or 1 that doesn't have 'device type' greyed out select 'none' instead of 'autodetect' & click "OK".
10. Right click on "Secondary IDE channel", select "Properties" and repeat step 9.
11. Reboot your computer.