What is the Recovery Console?
The Recovery Console is a special boot up method that can be used to help fix problems that are preventing your Windows installation from properly booting up into Windows. This method allows you to access the files, format drives, disable and enable services, and other tasks from a console prompt while the operating system is not loaded. It is suggested that the Recovery Console is to only be used only after Safe mode and the other standard startup options do not work. I feel that the Recovery Console is also useful in other situations such as removing malware files that start in both Safe mode and Standard Mode and thus not allowing you to delete the infection.
How to install the Recovery Console to your hard drive
I recommend that you install the Recovery Console directly onto your computer so that if you need it in the future, it is readily available. The Recovery Console only takes up approximately 7 megabytes so there is no reason why you should not have it installed in case you need it.
To install the Recovery Console on your hard drive, follow these steps:
1.Insert the Windows XP CD into your CD-ROM drive.
2.Click the Start button.
3.Click the Run menu option.
4.In the Open: field type X:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons , where X is the drive letter for your CD reader, and press the OK button. An image of this step can be found below:
5.After pressing the OK button a setup window will appear similar to the one below.
Simply press the Yes button to continue with the installation of the Recovery Console. The setup program will then attempt to do a Dynamic Update to make sure you have the latest files as shown below.
Simply allow it to continue and then when it is finished, you will be presented with a screen similar to the one below telling you so.
6.Press the OK button and remove the CD from your computer.
Now when you start your computer you will have an option to start the Recovery Console.
How to start the Recovery Console
To start the Recovery Console when it is installed on your hard drive you would do the following:
Reboot your computer and as Windows starts it will present you with your startup options as shown in the figure below.
2.With the arrows keys on your keyboard select the option listed as Microsoft Windows Recovery Console and press the enter key on your keyboard.
3.The Recovery Console will start and ask you which Windows installation you would like to log on to. If you have multiple Windows installations, it will list each one, and you would enter the number associated with the installation you would like to work on and press enter. If you have just one Windows installation, type 1 and press enter.
4.It will then prompt you for the Administrator's password. If there is no password, simply press enter. Otherwise type in the password and then press enter. If you do not know your password then see this.
5.If you entered the correct password you will now be presented with a C:\Windows> prompt and you can start using the Recovery Console.
To start the Recovery Console directly from the
1.Windows XP CD you would do the following:
2.Insert the Windows XP cd in your computer.
3.Restart your computer so you are booting off of the CD.
4.When the Welcome to Setup screen appears, press the R button on your keyboard to start the Recovery Console.
5.The Recovery Console will start and ask you which Windows installation you would like to log on to. If you have multiple Windows installations, it will list each one, and you would enter the number associated with the installation you would like to work on and press enter. If you have just one Windows installation, type 1 and press enter.
6.It will then prompt you for the Administrator's password. If there is no password, simply press enter. Otherwise type in the password and then press enter. If you do not know your password then see this.
7.If you entered the correct password you will now be presented with a C:\Windows> prompt and you can start using the Recovery Console.
Remove the prompting of a password
When the Recovery Console starts it will ask for your Administrator password before continuing. In many cases when you have XP pre installed on your computer the Recovery Console will not recognize your Administrator's password. In these situations it is possible to edit a registry setting so that the Recovery Console does not ask for a password. This setting works on both Windows XP Home and Pro editions.
To change this setting do the following:
1.Click on the Start button.
2.Click on the Run option
3.Type regedit.exe in the open field and press the OK button.
Navigate to the 4.HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Setup\RecoveryConsole
5.Change the value of SecurityLevel value to 1
6.Close regedit
7.Reboot your computer.
Now the Recovery Console will no longer ask for a password.
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