[OT] Rebooting XP system - seeking utilities

[Maerko]

Very recently I used some registry cleaners and registry tweakers on
WinXP. One which I used was X-Setup Pro with it's 1,700 settings!
http://www.x-setup.net/product/

Maybe one of these tools has made my registry now look for a non-
existent program on bootup because the boot sequence keeps on
looping. XP gets past the XP welcome screen (which is set to
autologon) but even before the desktop icons appear, XP logs itself
off. And then on and off and on. Etc.

(1) Is there a way to get such a rebooting XP system to stop its
boot sequence and to put up an error message when it can't find a
particular program?

(2) I have two XP partitions in one machine. One is old and the
other is the failing partition which keeps rebooting. Is there a
registry editor which I can run on the *old* XP partition and then
edit the registry in the *other* failing partition?

It's perhaps the sort of tool which might be used for manual removal
of malware.

(3) Is there a tool which tells you what programs are called to run
at XP's startup (like 'StartUpList' or 'HijackThis') but not for the
same partition that as program runs in but for *another* XP
partition?

 

[Eric Gisin]

Maybe one of these tools has made my registry now look for a non-
existent program on bootup because the boot sequence keeps on
looping. XP gets past the XP welcome screen (which is set to
autologon) but even before the desktop icons appear, XP logs itself
off. And then on and off and on. Etc.

Your system is booting. WinLogon is not launching explorer, or explorer is
exiting.

(1) Is there a way to get such a rebooting XP system to stop its
boot sequence and to put up an error message when it can't find a
particular program?

Try booting (using F8) to Safe Mode - command prompt. You can launch most GUI
apps, like regedit and eventvwr.

(2) I have two XP partitions in one machine. One is old and the
other is the failing partition which keeps rebooting. Is there a
registry editor which I can run on the *old* XP partition and then
edit the registry in the *other* failing partition?

You can load registry hives from system32\config using regedt32.

It's perhaps the sort of tool which might be used for manual removal
of malware.

(3) Is there a tool which tells you what programs are called to run
at XP's startup (like 'StartUpList' or 'HijackThis') but not for the
same partition that as program runs in but for *another* XP
partition?

Unlikely, too specific.

 

[David Qunt]

"Eric Gisin" <[email protected]> squirted these wordjisms deep
inside the bumtube of the newstwat in

Your system is booting. WinLogon is not launching explorer, or
explorer is exiting.

Try booting (using F8) to Safe Mode - command prompt. You can launch
most GUI apps, like regedit and eventvwr.

You can load registry hives from system32\config using regedt32.

Unlikely, too specific.

Try the recovery console, or do a repair install on the faulty
installation.

--
*********************************

David Qunt

****************************************************

 

[Maerko]

You can load registry hives from system32\config using
regedt32.

What file do I open when I use regedt32 to go to the other failing drive's
system32\config folder?

I tried a couple but got some dire warning about all entries being deleted
if i continued the open operation.

 

[Eric Gisin]

What file do I open when I use regedt32 to go to the other failing drive's
system32\config folder?

I tried a couple but got some dire warning about all entries being deleted
if i continued the open operation.

I got permission errors in Win2K when loading system and software.

I don't know, it used to work in NT4.

 

[Alexander Grigoriev]

Some people just want to hurt themselves.

 

[chris]

I got permission errors in Win2K when loading system and software.

I don't know, it used to work in NT4.

You want to load the hive, not import or restore which will indeed
nuke existing info.

-Chris

 

[chris]

Very recently I used some registry cleaners and registry tweakers on
WinXP. One which I used was X-Setup Pro with it's 1,700 settings!
http://www.x-setup.net/product/

Maybe one of these tools has made my registry now look for a non-
existent program on bootup because the boot sequence keeps on
looping. XP gets past the XP welcome screen (which is set to
autologon) but even before the desktop icons appear, XP logs itself
off. And then on and off and on. Etc.

How fun! You can stop the autologon by holding down shift. XP in
the family logon mode has the interesting feature that it tries to
logon to each user listed using a blank password. So if the user has
a blank password, XP doesn't stop at the logon screen.

Is it stuck logging in/out, or is it actually crashing and rebooting?
(ie does it go through the loading windows stuff again?)

(1) Is there a way to get such a rebooting XP system to stop its
boot sequence and to put up an error message when it can't find a
particular program?

(2) I have two XP partitions in one machine. One is old and the
other is the failing partition which keeps rebooting. Is there a
registry editor which I can run on the *old* XP partition and then
edit the registry in the *other* failing partition?

egistry editor (regedt32). Click on the top of the
HKey_Local_Machine, then go to the file menu and select "Load Hive".
Go the the other drive to windows\system32\config. The system file
will be the system registry, software the software registry.

When you're done, you will want to "unload" the hive. DO NOT hit
delete to remove it as that will delete it rather than disconnect from
the file.

Another very helpful tool is the ability to open up the event logs
from the other install. Go to the start->run and run "compmgmt.msc".
Right click on event logs and choose open log file. The log files are
also in the system32\config directory.

It's perhaps the sort of tool which might be used for manual removal
of malware.

Regedt32 can be very helpful to remove entries from the registry keys
that list statup programs.

Sometimes deleting malware and virus files without fixing the registry
can cause problems. Some of the virus's that redirect calls to exe
files come to mind. Manually deleting the file would cause all exe
files to not run, including explorer.exe

(3) Is there a tool which tells you what programs are called to run
at XP's startup (like 'StartUpList' or 'HijackThis') but not for the
same partition that as program runs in but for *another* XP
partition?

Check the startup folder under documents and settings\all users\start
menu\startup. Also look at the folder for the particular user. Other
than that, it's time to hit the registry!

Absolute worst case, you can reinstall XP into the same
folder/partition and it will keep most of your programs intact.

-Chris