Archive for June, 2004

HOW TO: Restore the Operating System to a Previous State in Windows XP (Q306084)

This article describes how to use the System Restore tool to return your computer to a previous working state. System Restore takes a “snapshot” of critical system files and some program files and stores this information as restore points. You can use these restore points to return Windows XP to a previous state. The article discuses restore without being able to start Windows XP and restore while be able to start Windows XP.

Click here for the kb article from Microsoft.

Win-XP kills Verizon DSL

Note: Really nice article on theregus.com. On Friday morning my Verizon DSL Internet access died. This was hardly unusual, so I paid it no mind and simply took an unscheduled long weekend. But Saturday morning it was still dead, and there were no reports of service outages in my area. Clearly this would require some looking into.

I experimented a bit and came to suspect that the issue was on Verizon’s side. And so it was, with an interesting twist courtesy of Microsoft, I eventually confirmed; but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

It’s a good thing I didn’t have any social obligations until Saturday night; when all was said and done, Verizon had taken seven hours of my time in exasperating, repetitive, futile interactions with their tech support staff, and no doubt a few months off my lifespan.

Click here for more. The next article is a link to Microsoft that discusses the “hack” for the fix.

How to Establish the Allowable MTU Size When You Are Using Internet Connection Sharing on PPPoE (Q314100)

IMPORTANT : This article contains information about editing the registry. Before you edit the registry, make sure you understand how to restore it if a problem occurs. For information about how to do this, view the “Restoring the Registry” Help topic in Regedit.exe or the “Restoring a Registry Key” Help topic in Regedt32.exe.

This article describes how to establish the maximum transmission unit (MTU) size for using Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) if your outbound connection uses Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet (PPPoE). If the setting for MTU size is too high, clients that are using the ICS connection may not be able to browse some Web sites or send messages that contain attachments.

PPPoE is a method for establishing Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) connections through Ethernet network adapters. PPPoE requires that, on all client computers, you lower the setting for maximum transmission unit (MTU) size to a value no higher than 1,492. (The default is 1,500.) In some cases, a value lower than 1,492 may be necessary.

Click here for the kb article from Microsoft.

HOW TO: Troubleshoot the Video Adapter Driver in Safe Mode in Windows XP (Q292460)

This article shows shows you methods of troubleshooting Safe-Mode video problems. In Safe mode, the computer does not start the video adapter driver that is used during normal operations, so you need to use Device Manager to discover, update, roll back, or uninstall the video driver instead of accessing the Display properties.

Click here for the kb article from Microsoft.

Windows XP: Kernel Improvements Create a More Robust, Powerful, and Scalable OS

SUMMARY The Windows XP kernel includes a number of improvements over Windows 2000 that promote better scalability and overall performance. This article covers these changes and explains how they improve startup time, increase registry size limits, and promote more efficient disk partitioning. Windows XP provides support for 64-bit processors, which is covered here along with a discussion of how side-by-side assemblies end DLL Hell. Also new in the Windows XP kernel is a facility that will roll back driver installations to the Last Known Good state of the registry, making driver installation safer. Other topics include the new volume shadow copy facility, which provides for more accurate backups and improvements in remote debugging.

Click here for a nice article from Microsoft.

How to Determine Which Video Driver Is Loading in Windows XP (Q314854)

This article describes procedures that you can follow to troubleshoot difficulties with video drivers when you start your computer in Windows XP. Specifically, the article describes how to find out which video drivers are loading.

If the video driver is not loading correctly, another program may have replaced some files. These symptoms point to that cause:

The system continues to default to VGA mode or only boots in VGA mode from the Boot menu.

The video driver is not loading properly.

Click here for the kb article from Microsoft.

Description of the Windows XP Recovery Console (Q314058)

This article describes the functionality and limitations of the Windows Recovery Console. The Windows Recovery Console is designed to help you recover if your Windows-based computer does not start properly or does not start at all.

When you use the Windows Recovery Console, you can obtain limited access to NTFS, FAT, and FAT32 volumes without starting the Windows graphical user interface. In the Windows Recovery Console, you can:

• Use, copy, rename, or replace operating system files and folders.
• Enable or disable service or device startup when you next start your computer.
• Repair the file system boot sector or the Master Boot Record (MBR).
• Create and format partitions on drives.

Note that only an administrator can obtain access to the Windows Recovery Console so that unauthorized users cannot use any NTFS volume.

Click here for the kb article from Microsoft.

You Receive a “System Has Recovered from a Serious Error” Message After Every Restart (Q317277)

If Windows XP restarts because of a serious error, the Windows Error Reporting tool prompts you to report the problem to Microsoft for troubleshooting purposes. Windows may begin prompting you to report this information every time you restart the computer, even if no error occurred during the previous session. After this problem begins to occur, you are prompted to send the information after every restart, even if you choose not to send the information.

This problem occurs because after a Minidump (or memory dump) file is written, the paging file continues to have a flag set that indicates that a memory dump file needs to be written.

Click here for the kb article from Microsoft.

How to Send a Full or Kernel Dump to Microsoft Windows Online Crash Analysis (Q316450)

This article is intended for customers who have submitted a crash report to the Windows Online Crash Analysis Web site.

Thank you for submitting this event report to Microsoft Windows Online Crash Analysis. We have analyzed your report and have determined that we require additional information before we can identify the cause of this crash event. A complete memory dump records the entire contents of your operating system memory when the crash event occurs; it should contain the information we need to debug the crash. This article contains instructions for finding the complete or kernel memory dump on your computer and uploading it to Microsoft. That article also contains instructions for configuring your computer for a complete or kernel dump if the file does not exist.

Click here for the kb article from Microsoft.

INFO: Windows NT/2000/XP Uses KnownDLLs Registry Entry to Find DLLs (Q164501)

Microsoft Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP uses the KnownDLLs registry entries to search for either 32-bit or 16-bit DLLs when loading the DLL. For 32-bit DLLs the KnownDLLs registry entry only affects the search for implicitly loaded DLLs. For 16-bit DLLs the KnownDLLs registry entry affects the search for both implicitly and explicitly loaded DLLs. If you incorrectly include a DLL name in the KnownDLLs registry entry, the LoadLibrary in Windows NT/2000/XP WOW fails to load a DLL located in the application’s current directory.

Windows NT/2000/XP uses the KnownDLLs registry entry to determine which DLL an application will use. There are two different KnownDLLs registry entries: one that affects the loading of 32-bit DLLs, and one that affects the loading of 16-bit DLLs. A DLL listed in the KnownDLLs registry entry is sometimes referred to as a “KnownDLL” in this article.

Click here for the kb article from Microsoft.