Startup and Recovery Settings

Changing the System Failure Settings

By default, the Windows XP Startup and Recovery Settings are configured to automatically restart the operating system when Windows encounters a problem and stops responding.

To get to the Startup and Recovery window:

Click the START button.

Right-click on My Computer.

Left-click Properties from the resulting menu.

Click the Advanced Tab.

Click Settings under Startup and Recovery. That will bring you to the window shown below.

Under "System Failure", if the "Automatically Restart" check box is selected, Windows automatically restarts if the computer stops unexpectedly. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but if your computer constantly restarts while in use, or if you are trying to shut down the computer after it has stopped unexpectedly, you will want to clear the Automatically Restart check box. By clearing this check box, you will now receive an error message when the computer stops responding. This is a good thing because the error message may describe the cause of the problem.

At the top of the window under "System Startup" you'll see the default operating system listed (default meaning that if you powered on your computer and did nothing else, the default operating system would load automatically). If you have a "dual-boot" configuration (meaning you have more than one operating system loaded on your computer), you would be able to click on the drop-down arrow to view them both. You can also change the default operating system from the drop-down. If you need to edit the path of your operating system you can do so by clicking on the "Edit" button which will display the boot.ini file in Notepad.

The first check box under the default operating system window is the "Time to display list of Operating Systems". If you have more than one operating system, this check box allows you to view your operating system choices for the alotted time when your computer starts. The default time is 30 seconds but it can be changed to suit your needs.

The other check box is the "Time to display Recovery Options when needed", also set at 30 seconds by default. Recovery Options will be shown if your system is unable to start for any reason.

Return From Startup and Recovery Settings to the Tutorials page

Return to the Home Page

New! Comments

SBI!