Recovery Console OS?

[bob]

Hi,
I have a Compaq Presaro desktop that is about a week old.
At about yesturday I noticed that when it was starting up
it displayed an operating system selection screen for
about 2 seconds. I couldn't read the whole thing in that
short amount of time, but one was Windows XP and the
other was Recovery Console or something. The only things
I have really done to this computer was installed Office
XP, Roxio Easy CD & DVD Creator 6, and components from
Windows Update. Would any of these cause that to be a
choice of operating system? Also, what does it do?

Thank You.

 

[Maurice N]

Hi,
I have a Compaq Presaro desktop that is about a week old.
At about yesturday I noticed that when it was starting up
it displayed an operating system selection screen for
about 2 seconds. I couldn't read the whole thing in that
short amount of time, but one was Windows XP and the
other was Recovery Console or something. The only things
I have really done to this computer was installed Office
XP, Roxio Easy CD & DVD Creator 6, and components from
Windows Update. Would any of these cause that to be a
choice of operating system? Also, what does it do?

Thank You.

Hi Bob,
That's likely not an abnormal setup. It may well be how Compaq set it up.
The Recovery Console (and I would say, be *certain* it didn't say "Recovery CD") is a special "Command type" capability for the pc system administrator to login & then do some *fixes*. It is not an "operating system" as such. Not in the usual way.

Recovery Console is on the XP CD and run from the XP CD ...(unless you have previously taken steps to add it to your bootup options).
See this MS article
http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;307654
HOW TO: Install and Use the Recovery Console for Windows XP