I have a question about Contents of the MSDOS.SYS File:

is there a way to stop WindowsXP to boot in dos mode by pressing F8? Win9X ME and 2000 has MSDOS.SYS, WindowsXP is different. Thanks - Zoltan

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Neither 2000 nor XP can be booted into DOS (as you're referring to it) as a bootup option, at least not without using startup disks. In both cases they have an msdos.sys file in the root of c:\, but they're just blank files. You can choose "safe mode - command prompt" when starting up, but you'll still have to log in for security reasons.... and all it is is a dos emulator.


On Tuesday, December 3, 2002 at 1:14 pm, Zoltan Toth wrote:
>I have a question about Contents
>of the MSDOS.SYS File:

>is there a way to stop WindowsXP to boot in dos mode by pressing F8? Win9X ME and
>2000 has MSDOS.SYS, WindowsXP is different.
>Thanks - Zoltan
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Ok, understood, but is there a way to avoid the F8 (function key to brake the boot to Safemode option) on Windows XP and continue with normal boot? MSDOS.SYS had the BootKeys=0 setting, not apply to Windows XP. We would like to avoid the F8 brake function somehow. Thanks - Adam.


On Tuesday, December 3, 2002 at 1:34 pm, Adam wrote:
>Neither 2000 nor XP can be booted into DOS (as you're referring to it) as a bootup
>option, at least not without using startup disks. In both cases they have an msdos.sys
>file in the root of c:\, but they're just blank files. You can choose "safe mode
>- command prompt" when starting up, but you'll still have to log in for security
>reasons.... and all it is is a dos emulator.
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

You're being a little vague and confusing.  (are you getting these options automatically, 
and want it to stop, or are you trying to prevent someone from pressing F8 to get 
them?  And do you mean break not brake?)  Here's a couple of  shots in the dark anyway, 
if I've got your drift.

a) What happens if you go to My Computer Properties > Advanced tab > click Startup 
and Recover > uncheck the box for  "Time to display recovery options when needed"?

b)  There may be something you can put in the boot.ini file, but I haven't heard 
of it.  You could try a web search on boot.ini options.  It's also possible, given 
what little I know of your situation, that your being fooled by a SafeBoot option 
someone put there.

Sorry to condescend if your way ahead of this stuff.
 






On Tuesday, December 3, 2002 at 2:40 pm, Zoltan Toth wrote:
>Ok, understood, but is there a way to avoid the F8 (function key to brake the boot 
>to Safemode option) on Windows XP and continue with normal boot?
>MSDOS.SYS had the BootKeys=0 setting, not apply to Windows XP. We would like to 
avoid 
>the F8 brake function somehow. Thanks - Adam.
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Have you ever found the answer to this question about how to "lock out" the f8 key during boot to prevent the safe boot option?


On Tuesday, December 3, 2002 at 1:34 pm, Adam wrote:
>Neither 2000 nor XP can be booted into DOS (as you're referring to it) as a bootup
>option, at least not without using startup disks. In both cases they have an msdos.sys
>file in the root of c:\, but they're just blank files. You can choose "safe mode
>- command prompt" when starting up, but you'll still have to log in for security
>reasons.... and all it is is a dos emulator.
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

There's an effective way to enter pure and stand-alone dos on a machine with Windows XP, not using F8. Divide the hard drive into at least 2 main partition and install DOS on one of them. (U may use PQMagic to create a main partition other than the existing one by dividing it without data loss. By the way, it's better to make it the first partition 'cause many versions of DOS don't support large disk. ) Backup the bootrecord of the partition to a file, say, bootrec.bin. (You may use BootPart. It's a freeware.) Add "c:\bootrec.bin" (the drive specified may be different) to boot.ini under [operating systems] and it works.


On Tuesday, December 3, 2002 at 1:14 pm, Zoltan Toth wrote:
>I have a question about Contents
>of the MSDOS.SYS File:

>is there a way to stop WindowsXP to boot in dos mode by pressing F8? Win9X ME and
>2000 has MSDOS.SYS, WindowsXP is different.
>Thanks - Zoltan
>
>

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