XTechManiac
Level E
Hi TEians,
I've seen newbies/members starting threads for already solved problems.
So, I decided to make this thread in which I've summed up all frequently asked question with their solutions.
I request all members to go through this thread first before posting their problems.
Problems covered in this thread:
1. Registry Editor/Task Manager disabled.
2. "NTLDR missing" error at system startup.
3. Tools -> Folder Options disabled.
4. Missing crash dump files in Windows 7.
5. Get rid of "ctfmon.exe" running in background.
6. Aero isn't running in Windows 7.
7. My Desktop's icons text lost transpareny. How to get it back?
8. How to get "Copy To/Move To" option in right-click menu?
9. I've forgotten my Windows 7/Windows XP Administrator password. How to reset it?
10. "BOOTMGR is missing" error at system startup.
11. "Windows\System32\config\system file missing or corrupt" error at system startup.
12. How to clean up my Windows 7 messy context menu?
13. How to fast up Windows 7?
14. New themes change custom icons
15. "DVD drive not found" error in Windows 7.
16. “Consider replacing your battery†error for Laptop user.
17. Restore back to your standard Taskbar
18. Windows 7 Install Hangs at 62% or 72% Error during upgrade from Vista.
19. Disable the annoying UAC in Windows 7.
20. System Tray Notification Area icons are missing.
Lets start now:-
---------------------------
1. Registry Editor/Task Manager disabled.
Registry has been Disabled:-
Open RUN and type gpedit.msc
Now go to : User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System
In right-side pane, set Prevent access to Registry editing tools to Disabled.
Task Manager has been Disabled:-
Go to following keys one by one:
In right-side pane, delete the DWORD value named DisableTaskMgr.
---------------------------
2. "NTLDR missing" error at system startup.
Boot using Windows CD and enter into Recovery Console.
Log into windows installation and enter your administrator password.
Type the following commands at prompt:
copy X:\i386\ntldr C:\
copy X:\i386\ntdetect.com C:\
Here "X" is your CD drive.
---------------------------
3.Tools -> Folder Options disabled.
Tools -> Folder Options has been Disabled:-
Go to following keys one by one:
In right-side pane, delete the DWORD value named NoFolderOptions.
---------------------------
4. Missing crash dump files in Windows 7.
I've faced with some situation when my Windows 7 crushed and to investigate about it, I've to find memory.dmp file.
But the problem is sometimes it doesn't appears. In order to fix it follow these instructions:-
Click Start > Right-click on Computer > Properties > Advanced System Settings > Startup and Recovery Settings. Take
a look that "Write debugging information" is not set to None. And Dump file location is
default "%SystemRoot%\MEMORY.DMP".
If all things are fine than most probably your free hard drive space is less than25GB. And so Windows will not keep a crash dump file during crashes. But again, you can you can change this settings. In order to do these follow these instructions:-
Start > Run > Type regedit > Okay
Navigate to:-
Create a new DWORD value called AlwaysKeepMemoryDump and set its value to 1.
Your crash dump file will always be preserved in future crashes.
---------------------------
5. "ctfmon.exe" running in background.
Open Control Panel and open Add/Remove Programs.
Select Microsoft Office entry and then click on Change button.
Select Add/Remove Features and then Next.
Expand Office Shared Features and then click on Alternative User Input
Select Not Available and then Update.
ctfmon.exe will be permanently removed.
---------------------------
6. Aero isn't running in Windows 7.
Click Start > Type Aero and choose the "Find and fix problems with transparency and other visual effects".
Aero troubleshooting wizard will launch and it will resolve most of your problems.. However there are some features like Aero Peek which this wizard can't fix.
In order to fix it Start > Run > Type regedit > Navigate to following key:-
And set the value of EnableAeroPeek to 1.
---------------------------
7. My Desktop's icons text lost transparency. How to get it back?
Run > Type sysdm.cpl > Enter
Go to "Advanced" tab and then click on Setting under Performance and then enable the option Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop.
---------------------------
8. How to get "Copy To/Move To" option in right-click menu?
Open up notepad and paste the following code(Copy To):-
Save the file to desktop as copyto.reg. Double click on the file and restart pc to see the effect.
Open up notepad and paste the following code(Move To):-
Save the file to desktop as moveto.reg. Double click on the file and restart pc to see the effect.
---------------------------
9. I've forgotten my Windows 7/Windows XP Administrator password. How to reset it?
There are a lot of tools and utilities that can be downloaded and used to recover, reset, retrieve or reveal existing password. Some of them which are worth mentioning are:-
1. Ophcrack - Visit the Ophcrack website, download the ISO image, burn it to a CD and boot off the CD.
After the program starts, select your Windows user accounts. Sit back and wait for Ophcrack to recover/crack the passwords automatically.
2. Offline NT Password & Registry Editor - Similar to Ophcrack, just boot off the CD(download ISO file from the website). Once the program gets loaded you can log in to your Windows account without entering a password at all.
By the way, its always better to create a password reset disk, to reset your password in future.
Get a removable media like USB/CD and log on using the account for which you want to create a password reset disk.
Go to Control Panel > User Accounts > In the Tasks pane, click Create A Password Reset Disk and follow the simple wizard.
---------------------------
10. "BOOTMGR is missing" error at system startup.
Boot off from Windows 7 DVD and select Repair your computer.
Select your Windows installation directory and click Next.
choose the Command Prompt option and use the following command to fix the problem:-
bootrec /fixboot
---------------------------
11. "Windows\System32\config\system file missing or corrupt" error at system startup.
Boot off from Windows Setup CD and enter into Recovery Console.
Log into windows and enter your administrator password.
Enter the following commands at prompt one by one:
copy %windir%\Repair\system %windir%\System32\Config
If it doesn't work, then try these commands:-
fixmbr
bootcfg /scan
bootcfg /rebuild
fixboot
---------------------------
12. How to clean up my Windows 7 messy context menu?
Get the ShellView and Shell Menu View.
Open the utility, select the option and just hit Disable button to remove the items.
---------------------------
13. How to fast up Windows 7?
# Disable the Aero Theme:-
Right click on Desktop and select Personalize.
Then you can simply scroll the themes down until you see the Basic themes.
Select Windows 7 Basic Theme > Apply
# Disabling the Search Indexing Feature in Windows 7:-
Right click on Computer icon and select Manage.
Click Services and Applications in the Computer Management section.
Click on Services.
Right click on Windows Search service and choose Properties.
From Startup type drop down menu and choose Disabled.
Click Apply > OK
# Disable/Set to Manual unwanted Services from Windows 7:-
Right click on Computer icon and select Manage.
Click Services and Applications in the Computer Management section.
Click on Services.
Now, in Windows 7 there are many system services which we don’t require. Set them to Manual so that windows can start it by itself only when needed.
Some of the service that I've set to manual are: Tablet PC Input Service, Windows Error Reporting Service, Windows Media Center Service Launcher, Windows Search, Portable Device Enumerator Service, Protected Storage, Remote Registry, Secondary Logon, Security Center, Application Experience,Diagnostic Policy Service, Distributed Link Tracking Client, and IP Helper.
Set them to Manual to speed up your Windows 7.
# Disable Unwanted StartUp services:-
Start > Run > Type msconfig
Navigate to the “StartUp†tab and Uncheck the entries which are not needed.
---------------------------
14.New themes change custom icons
Right click on desktop -> Personalize > In the left hand side select Change Desktop Icons and uncheck ‘Allow themes to change desktop icons‘ option.
---------------------------
15. "DVD drive not found" error in Windows 7.
Start > Run > Type regedit > Enter.
Navigate to:-
In the right-hand panel delete UpperFilters and LowerFilters.
Restart Windows.
---------------------------
16. “Consider replacing your battery†error for Laptop user.
If you're running Windows 7 on laptop then you might get an error saying that Consider replacing your battery or There is a problem with your battery, so your computer might shut down suddenly.
You laptop may even automatically shut down even though the battery is fine.
To fix it Open Command Prompt and type the following command :
powercfg -setdcvalueindex SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_BATTERY BATACTIONCRIT 0
Now, even when battery is almost out of power Windows will not shut down automatically. But again, if your battery really runs out then you may find yourself trying to type on a dead laptop.
---------------------------
17. Restore back to your standard Taskbar
If you don't like the new Windows 7 taskbar and finding it difficult to navigate then you can restore back to your standard taskbar. Right click on taskbar -> Properties -> Set Taskbar Buttons to Never combine or Combine when taskbar is full.
In order to restore back to the old Quick Launch toolbar, Right click on the taskbar > Toolbars > New Toolbar type
%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
in the folder box and click Select Folder.
---------------------------
18. Windows 7 Install Hangs at 62% or 72% Error during upgrade from Vista.
Boot in Windows Vista
Start > Right click on Computer > Properties > Advanced Settings > Environment Variables.
Under System Variables, click New > press Enter
Type in the following variable information:
Variable Name: MIG_UPGRADE_IGNORE_PLUGINS
Variable value: IphlpsvcMigPlugin.dll
Reboot your computer and restart Windows 7 installation process should go on.
---------------------------
19. Disable the annoying UAC in Windows 7.
In order to disable UAC in Windows 7 just type UAC into the start menu and simply drag the slider up or down, to choose alert priority. If you drag it all the way down to the bottom, you’ll have disabled it entirely.
---------------------------
20. System Tray Notification Area icons are missing.
Run > Type Regedit > Enter
Edit Tab > select Find > Type and search for iconstreams and then later for pasticonstreams and delete all instances of each of them.
---------------------------
That's all for now..
Please post/PM me any FAQ/suggestion that I've missed to cover up and I'll index them here...
If you have any doubts feel free to ask, and go easy on typos, you might run into few..
Comments are Reps are welcomed..
I've seen newbies/members starting threads for already solved problems.
So, I decided to make this thread in which I've summed up all frequently asked question with their solutions.
I request all members to go through this thread first before posting their problems.
Problems covered in this thread:
1. Registry Editor/Task Manager disabled.
2. "NTLDR missing" error at system startup.
3. Tools -> Folder Options disabled.
4. Missing crash dump files in Windows 7.
5. Get rid of "ctfmon.exe" running in background.
6. Aero isn't running in Windows 7.
7. My Desktop's icons text lost transpareny. How to get it back?
8. How to get "Copy To/Move To" option in right-click menu?
9. I've forgotten my Windows 7/Windows XP Administrator password. How to reset it?
10. "BOOTMGR is missing" error at system startup.
11. "Windows\System32\config\system file missing or corrupt" error at system startup.
12. How to clean up my Windows 7 messy context menu?
13. How to fast up Windows 7?
14. New themes change custom icons
15. "DVD drive not found" error in Windows 7.
16. “Consider replacing your battery†error for Laptop user.
17. Restore back to your standard Taskbar
18. Windows 7 Install Hangs at 62% or 72% Error during upgrade from Vista.
19. Disable the annoying UAC in Windows 7.
20. System Tray Notification Area icons are missing.
Lets start now:-
---------------------------
1. Registry Editor/Task Manager disabled.
Registry has been Disabled:-
Open RUN and type gpedit.msc
Now go to : User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System
In right-side pane, set Prevent access to Registry editing tools to Disabled.
Task Manager has been Disabled:-
Go to following keys one by one:
In right-side pane, delete the DWORD value named DisableTaskMgr.
---------------------------
2. "NTLDR missing" error at system startup.
Boot using Windows CD and enter into Recovery Console.
Log into windows installation and enter your administrator password.
Type the following commands at prompt:
copy X:\i386\ntldr C:\
copy X:\i386\ntdetect.com C:\
Here "X" is your CD drive.
---------------------------
3.Tools -> Folder Options disabled.
Tools -> Folder Options has been Disabled:-
Go to following keys one by one:
In right-side pane, delete the DWORD value named NoFolderOptions.
---------------------------
4. Missing crash dump files in Windows 7.
I've faced with some situation when my Windows 7 crushed and to investigate about it, I've to find memory.dmp file.
But the problem is sometimes it doesn't appears. In order to fix it follow these instructions:-
Click Start > Right-click on Computer > Properties > Advanced System Settings > Startup and Recovery Settings. Take
a look that "Write debugging information" is not set to None. And Dump file location is
default "%SystemRoot%\MEMORY.DMP".
If all things are fine than most probably your free hard drive space is less than25GB. And so Windows will not keep a crash dump file during crashes. But again, you can you can change this settings. In order to do these follow these instructions:-
Start > Run > Type regedit > Okay
Navigate to:-
Create a new DWORD value called AlwaysKeepMemoryDump and set its value to 1.
Your crash dump file will always be preserved in future crashes.
---------------------------
5. "ctfmon.exe" running in background.
Open Control Panel and open Add/Remove Programs.
Select Microsoft Office entry and then click on Change button.
Select Add/Remove Features and then Next.
Expand Office Shared Features and then click on Alternative User Input
Select Not Available and then Update.
ctfmon.exe will be permanently removed.
---------------------------
6. Aero isn't running in Windows 7.
Click Start > Type Aero and choose the "Find and fix problems with transparency and other visual effects".
Aero troubleshooting wizard will launch and it will resolve most of your problems.. However there are some features like Aero Peek which this wizard can't fix.
In order to fix it Start > Run > Type regedit > Navigate to following key:-
And set the value of EnableAeroPeek to 1.
---------------------------
7. My Desktop's icons text lost transparency. How to get it back?
Run > Type sysdm.cpl > Enter
Go to "Advanced" tab and then click on Setting under Performance and then enable the option Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop.
---------------------------
8. How to get "Copy To/Move To" option in right-click menu?
Open up notepad and paste the following code(Copy To):-
Save the file to desktop as copyto.reg. Double click on the file and restart pc to see the effect.
Open up notepad and paste the following code(Move To):-
Save the file to desktop as moveto.reg. Double click on the file and restart pc to see the effect.
---------------------------
9. I've forgotten my Windows 7/Windows XP Administrator password. How to reset it?
There are a lot of tools and utilities that can be downloaded and used to recover, reset, retrieve or reveal existing password. Some of them which are worth mentioning are:-
1. Ophcrack - Visit the Ophcrack website, download the ISO image, burn it to a CD and boot off the CD.
After the program starts, select your Windows user accounts. Sit back and wait for Ophcrack to recover/crack the passwords automatically.
2. Offline NT Password & Registry Editor - Similar to Ophcrack, just boot off the CD(download ISO file from the website). Once the program gets loaded you can log in to your Windows account without entering a password at all.
By the way, its always better to create a password reset disk, to reset your password in future.
Get a removable media like USB/CD and log on using the account for which you want to create a password reset disk.
Go to Control Panel > User Accounts > In the Tasks pane, click Create A Password Reset Disk and follow the simple wizard.
---------------------------
10. "BOOTMGR is missing" error at system startup.
Boot off from Windows 7 DVD and select Repair your computer.
Select your Windows installation directory and click Next.
choose the Command Prompt option and use the following command to fix the problem:-
bootrec /fixboot
---------------------------
11. "Windows\System32\config\system file missing or corrupt" error at system startup.
Boot off from Windows Setup CD and enter into Recovery Console.
Log into windows and enter your administrator password.
Enter the following commands at prompt one by one:
copy %windir%\Repair\system %windir%\System32\Config
If it doesn't work, then try these commands:-
fixmbr
bootcfg /scan
bootcfg /rebuild
fixboot
---------------------------
12. How to clean up my Windows 7 messy context menu?
Get the ShellView and Shell Menu View.
Open the utility, select the option and just hit Disable button to remove the items.
---------------------------
13. How to fast up Windows 7?
# Disable the Aero Theme:-
Right click on Desktop and select Personalize.
Then you can simply scroll the themes down until you see the Basic themes.
Select Windows 7 Basic Theme > Apply
# Disabling the Search Indexing Feature in Windows 7:-
Right click on Computer icon and select Manage.
Click Services and Applications in the Computer Management section.
Click on Services.
Right click on Windows Search service and choose Properties.
From Startup type drop down menu and choose Disabled.
Click Apply > OK
# Disable/Set to Manual unwanted Services from Windows 7:-
Right click on Computer icon and select Manage.
Click Services and Applications in the Computer Management section.
Click on Services.
Now, in Windows 7 there are many system services which we don’t require. Set them to Manual so that windows can start it by itself only when needed.
Some of the service that I've set to manual are: Tablet PC Input Service, Windows Error Reporting Service, Windows Media Center Service Launcher, Windows Search, Portable Device Enumerator Service, Protected Storage, Remote Registry, Secondary Logon, Security Center, Application Experience,Diagnostic Policy Service, Distributed Link Tracking Client, and IP Helper.
Set them to Manual to speed up your Windows 7.
# Disable Unwanted StartUp services:-
Start > Run > Type msconfig
Navigate to the “StartUp†tab and Uncheck the entries which are not needed.
---------------------------
14.New themes change custom icons
Right click on desktop -> Personalize > In the left hand side select Change Desktop Icons and uncheck ‘Allow themes to change desktop icons‘ option.
---------------------------
15. "DVD drive not found" error in Windows 7.
Start > Run > Type regedit > Enter.
Navigate to:-
In the right-hand panel delete UpperFilters and LowerFilters.
Restart Windows.
---------------------------
16. “Consider replacing your battery†error for Laptop user.
If you're running Windows 7 on laptop then you might get an error saying that Consider replacing your battery or There is a problem with your battery, so your computer might shut down suddenly.
You laptop may even automatically shut down even though the battery is fine.
To fix it Open Command Prompt and type the following command :
powercfg -setdcvalueindex SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_BATTERY BATACTIONCRIT 0
Now, even when battery is almost out of power Windows will not shut down automatically. But again, if your battery really runs out then you may find yourself trying to type on a dead laptop.
---------------------------
17. Restore back to your standard Taskbar
If you don't like the new Windows 7 taskbar and finding it difficult to navigate then you can restore back to your standard taskbar. Right click on taskbar -> Properties -> Set Taskbar Buttons to Never combine or Combine when taskbar is full.
In order to restore back to the old Quick Launch toolbar, Right click on the taskbar > Toolbars > New Toolbar type
%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
in the folder box and click Select Folder.
---------------------------
18. Windows 7 Install Hangs at 62% or 72% Error during upgrade from Vista.
Boot in Windows Vista
Start > Right click on Computer > Properties > Advanced Settings > Environment Variables.
Under System Variables, click New > press Enter
Type in the following variable information:
Variable Name: MIG_UPGRADE_IGNORE_PLUGINS
Variable value: IphlpsvcMigPlugin.dll
Reboot your computer and restart Windows 7 installation process should go on.
---------------------------
19. Disable the annoying UAC in Windows 7.
In order to disable UAC in Windows 7 just type UAC into the start menu and simply drag the slider up or down, to choose alert priority. If you drag it all the way down to the bottom, you’ll have disabled it entirely.
---------------------------
20. System Tray Notification Area icons are missing.
Run > Type Regedit > Enter
Edit Tab > select Find > Type and search for iconstreams and then later for pasticonstreams and delete all instances of each of them.
---------------------------
That's all for now..
Please post/PM me any FAQ/suggestion that I've missed to cover up and I'll index them here...
If you have any doubts feel free to ask, and go easy on typos, you might run into few..
Comments are Reps are welcomed..
