ie8 fix
Click Here

Between the Lines

Larry Dignan, Andrew Nusca and Rachel King

TR Dojo: Diagnose Windows XP boot problems with MSCONFIG

By | August 4, 2009, 2:20am PDT

The troubled release of Windows Vista served only to boost the popularity of Windows XP and even with Windows 7 slated to come out later this year, many users and IT shops still cling to their old standby. It’s no surprise then that Windows XP tips continue to score with TechRepublic members.

Among all the built-in Windows XP wizards and utilities, the System Configuration Utility (or MSCONFIG), is probably one of most useful. This handy utility, which has its roots in the Windows 9.x days, lets you modify boot files and startup parameters when troubleshooting boot problems. In this IT Dojo video, Bill Detwiler shows you how to launch the utility and then give you a general overview of those parts of the tool most useful for troubleshooting boot problems.

For those of you who prefer text to video, you can read Mark Kaelin’s article,“Troubleshoot Vista system drivers more efficiently with these tools,” on which this video is based.

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily e-mail newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

Topics

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic.

Disclosure

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan has nothing to disclose. He doesn’t hold investments in the technology companies he covers.

Biography

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.

For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.

The discussion hasn’t started yet. Why don’t you begin it?

Formatting +
BB Codes - Note: HTML is not supported in forums
  • [b] Bold [/b]
  • [i] Italic [/i]
  • [u] Underline [/u]
  • [s] Strikethrough [/s]
  • [q] "Quote" [/q]
  • [ol][*] 1. Ordered List [/ol]
  • [ul][*] · Unordered List [/ul]
  • [pre] Preformat [/pre]
  • [quote] "Blockquote" [/quote]
ie8 fix

The best of ZDNet, delivered

ZDNet Newsletters

Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox

Facebook Activity

White Papers, Webcasts, & Resources
ie8 fix