- Jul 18, 2004
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I am surprised to see that there is no dedicated topic here for the procedure for clean booting into Windows. Nine times out of ten, a clean boot followed by a reinstallation solves my hardware and software problems. The fact is that most of us now have so many applications and programs running in the background (most of which do not show up in the system tray) that we should probably all be using the clean boot procedure for every installation.
If you are having problems with any type of hardware or software application in Windows, the following procedure should be on your short list of things to try before taking a sledgehammer to your PC:
1. Revert back to stock timings and voltages if you?ve overclocked anything.
2. Uninstall the problem software or hardware as completely as possible. Video card drivers in particular like a pristine environment. There's a good post here describing the "how to's" of uninstalling video card drivers.
3. Perform the Windows XP ?clean boot? procedure:
a. Click Start, and then click Run.
b. Type ?msconfig? and then click OK.
c. On the General tab, click Selective Startup.
d. Under Selective Startup, click to clear the following check
boxes:
i. -Process SYSTEM.INI File
ii. -Process WIN.INI File
iii. -Load Startup Items
f. On the Services tab, click the box that reads Hide All Microsoft Services, and then click Disable All.
g. Click OK, and then click Restart.
h. Once your computer restarts and the notification window for the System Configuration appears, place a checkmark in the box to hide the window from future sessions and click the OK button.
4. Perform a normal installation of the software or hardware, restarting again if prompted.
5. Ensure that the newly installed software or hardware appears to be running properly
6. Revert back to Normal Startup using the following procedure:
a. Click Start, then click Run.
b. Type ?msconfig? and then click OK.
c. On the General tab, select Normal Startup.
d. Click OK and then click Restart.
Simple right? That?s all there is to it and it really does work. Like it says above, try this first!
If you are having problems with any type of hardware or software application in Windows, the following procedure should be on your short list of things to try before taking a sledgehammer to your PC:
1. Revert back to stock timings and voltages if you?ve overclocked anything.
2. Uninstall the problem software or hardware as completely as possible. Video card drivers in particular like a pristine environment. There's a good post here describing the "how to's" of uninstalling video card drivers.
3. Perform the Windows XP ?clean boot? procedure:
a. Click Start, and then click Run.
b. Type ?msconfig? and then click OK.
c. On the General tab, click Selective Startup.
d. Under Selective Startup, click to clear the following check
boxes:
i. -Process SYSTEM.INI File
ii. -Process WIN.INI File
iii. -Load Startup Items
f. On the Services tab, click the box that reads Hide All Microsoft Services, and then click Disable All.
g. Click OK, and then click Restart.
h. Once your computer restarts and the notification window for the System Configuration appears, place a checkmark in the box to hide the window from future sessions and click the OK button.
4. Perform a normal installation of the software or hardware, restarting again if prompted.
5. Ensure that the newly installed software or hardware appears to be running properly
6. Revert back to Normal Startup using the following procedure:
a. Click Start, then click Run.
b. Type ?msconfig? and then click OK.
c. On the General tab, select Normal Startup.
d. Click OK and then click Restart.
Simple right? That?s all there is to it and it really does work. Like it says above, try this first!