Windows XP boot up issue

[darthshearer]

A few week ago a few of you may have read This

Well during my probs with that one of my great ideas was to try and reinstall my XP. Now the virus situation has gone I am blessed with another problem.

When I boot up it comes up with a screen just after the POST and sys spec with a choice between XP Pro or the XP Pro setup options. My question is can I get rid of this so it boots up without me having to make the choice? I dont want to format my HDD.

Also how do I disable the new updates for XP its fooking annoying!

 

[(Shovel)]

Control Panel -> System -> Advanced -> "Startup & Recovery"

Set "Time to display list of operating systems" to 0 (or possibly just uncheck it). Then it will boot you straight into the default no questions asked

 

[darthshearer]

Thanks Shovel

 

[Miles_Binck]

a bit late I know, but you could have just edited your boot.ini to remove the line referring to the Windows XP setup. This would be a better option just incase you ever need to boot into safe mode, or last know good configuration.


to disable the Automatic Updates simply go

Control Panel > System > Automatic Updates > Untick the "Keep my computer up to date. blah blah blah. > Apply then OK

also another excellent Win XP resource site is Black Viper's homepage. More specifically here this is pretty much a complete guide to Windows XP services explaining which you can disable/enable for better system performance / security etc.

 

[(Shovel)]

Disabling the timer on the XP control panel is exactly the same as editing boot.ini - it's just a GUI for the file

If Windows doesn't start properly then you'll get the emergency boot menu anyway, and I believe that pressing F8 during boot will also display the full menu - like in the bad old 9x days.

 

[Miles_Binck]

Originally posted by (Shovel)
If Windows doesn't start properly then you'll get the emergency boot menu anyway, and I believe that pressing F8 during boot will also display the full menu - like in the bad old 9x days.

F8 does bring up the boot menu but there is a problem that if the timer is set to 0 it can occasionally screw up the Emergency Boot Menu. I'm not sure if this is documented on the MSKB but it is certainly a known problem, like all MS software it only seems to fudge up at the most crucial times.

 

[(Shovel)]

Hmm. I have to say I've never had to manually go into safe mode since having XP, and I updgraded about 2 days after release.

On that basis, maybe setting the timer to "1" might be a safe bet. That way, you quickly press an arrow key to change the selection (breaking the timer) so you can get to the emergency options that way?

 

[darthshearer]

Originally posted by Miles_Binck
a bit late I know, but you could have just edited your boot.ini to remove the line referring to the Windows XP setup. This would be a better option just incase you ever need to boot into safe mode, or last know good configuration.


to disable the Automatic Updates simply go

Control Panel > System > Automatic Updates > Untick the "Keep my computer up to date. blah blah blah. > Apply then OK

also another excellent Win XP resource site is Black Viper's homepage. More specifically here this is pretty much a complete guide to Windows XP services explaining which you can disable/enable for better system performance / security etc.

Yeh I did edit the boot.ini after looking into the thing that Shovel posted