1. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Maintaining and Troubleshooting Windows Chapter 17

2. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition In this chapter, you will learn how to –Maintain Windows –Optimize Windows –Troubleshoot Windows Overview

3. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Maintaining Windows CompTIA A+ Essentials Essentials

4. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Maintaining Windows Maintaining Windows means keeping Windows running well –Patching the OS –Clearing out old files –Pruning the Registry –Running hard drive utilities, such as Error-checking and Disk Defragmenter –Implementing security against malware –Scheduling maintenance so it happens regularly

5. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Patches, Updates, and Service Packs Windows updated regularly –Flaws, bugs, program errors found and corrected –People still didn’t update their computers! Windows Update –Enables automatic updating of systems over Internet –Express for high- priority updates

6. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Accessing Windows Update Access Windows Update in two ways –Start | All Programs | Windows Update –Or in Internet Explorer, Tools | Windows Update

7. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Automatic Updates Automatic (recommended) –Updates downloaded and installed automatically Download Updates for Me –Updates downloaded, but not installed automatically Notify Me –User notified when updates are available Turn Off Automatic Updates –No automatic updates

8. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Managing and Uninstalling Highest of the high-priority updates: Service Packs –Collection of updates –Often add new features –Windows XP SP2 considered a different version of the OS Security Center (in Control Panel) Process of installing and updating Windows is called patch management Uninstall service packs –Add/Remove Programs –Spuninst.exe

9. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Disk Maintenance When troubleshooting OS, remember basic disk tools –Error-checking –Disk Defragmenter Disk Cleanup –Helps clean out junk files

10. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Registry Maintenance and Malicious Software Registry maintenance –Registry can get bloated –Older tool from Microsoft named RegClean –Not updated for 2000/XP/Vista –Can use third-party tool such as CCleaner by Piriform Security –Spyware/antivirus/firewall –Integral part of computing today –Covered in more depth in Chapter 26

11. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Scheduling Maintenance Use the Task Scheduler/Scheduled Tasks –Windows 2000/XP have version 1.0 –Windows Vista/7 have version 2.0 –Find in the System Tools section of the Start menu –Key to making it work: know the name of the executable for the program you’re scheduling

12. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Scheduling Maintenance (continued) Task Scheduler in Vista/7 more advanced –Triggers are actions that start a program –Actions define both the program and how the program runs –Conditions are extra criteria for running the program Is the system idle? Is the system connected to the Internet

13. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Scheduling Maintenance (continued) Typical tasks to schedule –Disk defragmentation (especially with Windows 2000/XP) %systemroot%\system32\defrag.exe –Error-checking %systemroot%\system32\chkdsk.exe Use the /F and /R switches

14. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Scheduling Maintenance (continued) This screen shows a typical task scheduled in Windows XP

15. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Lab – What’s Scheduled? Many tasks run automatically in Vista Start | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Task Scheduler Drill down on menu on left –Task Scheduler Library –Microsoft –Windows Can make changes in scheduling here –Click Defrag to see the current settings

16. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Controlling Start-up Programs System Configuration Utility –Use to edit and troubleshoot Programs that load at start-up Automatic processes Services –Start | Run or Start Search | msconfig

17. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Lab– MSCONFIG 1.Start | Start Search 2.Type msconfig and press ENTER 3.Select the Startup tab 4.Deselect anything unnecessary 5.Reboot Can always undo in Safe Mode if you deselect something necessary

18. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Optimizing Windows

19. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Optimizing Windows Optimizing Windows means to make it better Five general areas for improvement –Installing and removing software –Installing and removing devices –Adjusting Performance Options to fine-tune experience for specific computer –Resource tracking to discover and remove bottlenecks –Preparing for problems to minimize any downtime

20. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition What’s Installed? Start with the System Information tool –Referred to on exams as MSINFO32 –Shows installed software and resources

21. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Installing or Removing Software Installing software –Most programs are distributed on optical discs that make use of the Autorun feature –Or you could use the Add or Remove Programs applet in Control Panel (2000/XP) –Use Run as Administrator... in Windows Vista when UAC balks at an installation Removing software –Use the uninstall option that is part of the program –Add or Remove Programs (2000/XP) –Programs and Features (Vista)

22. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Add or Remove Programs Uninstall option Control Panel

23. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Windows Components/Features Miscellaneous Windows components can be installed or uninstalled Access from Add or Remove Programs in Windows 2000/XP

24. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Windows Components/Features (continued) Miscellaneous Windows components can be installed or uninstalled Access from Programs and Features in Windows Vista/7

25. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Installing/Optimizing a Device Pretty much the same in all versions of Windows Driver Updates –Can use Windows Update –In Windows 2000/XP, must use Custom option in Windows Update to see updates –Or check manufacturer’s Web site

26. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Installing/Optimizing a Device (continued) Driver Updates in Vista –Can use Windows Update

27. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Driver Signing Process of testing and verifying drivers Windows Hardware Quality Lab –Tests drivers –Issues digital signatures Signed drivers –“Designed for Windows 2000” –“Designed for Windows XP” –“Designed for Windows Vista”

28. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Unsigned Drivers Many manufacturers issue drivers that have not been tested and signed by Microsoft –When detected during a hardware install, you’ll get the message shown

29. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Device Manager Can roll back faulty driver −If you accidentally install a faulty driver, you can roll back to the driver that was installed originally

30. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Adding a New Device Windows usually automatically detects new devices If not, use the Add Hardware Wizard –From Control Panel –From Hardware tab of System Properties

31. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Lab – Install a Modem (1) About 99 percent of the time, Windows will detect new hardware installed within the system unit There are times when the user will want to install legacy devices (really old devices) In cases like this, Windows trusts that it is there and you installed it correctly For this lab, we will install a Phantom Modem

32. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Lab – Install a Modem (2) 1.Start | Control Panel | Add Hardware | Add Hardware Wizard, next –Windows will scan your computer for new hardware 2.In XP, select Yes, I have connected | Next | Scroll to Add a new hardware device | Next 3.Install hardware manually | Modem | Next | Don’t detect | Next | Standard 56000bps | Next | COM 2 | Next | Finish 4.Find it in Device Manager

33. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Lab – Install a Modem (3) While in the Device Manager, right-click the newly installed Modem, then select Disable –What symbol is displayed when a device has been disabled? There is no modem attached to the computer, so we need to delete the device –Right-click the device, then click Uninstall

34. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Performance Options Visual effects in Windows affect performance You can enhance the performance of a minimum-spec. computer by disabling some or all of the fancier effects –System applet | Advanced tab or Advanced System Settings | Advanced tab –Right-click My Computer/Computer and select Properties | Advanced tab or Advanced System Settings –Click the Options (Windows 2000) or Settings (Windows XP/Vista) button in the Performance section –Opens the Performance Options dialog box

35. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Performance Options (continued) Select Adjust for best performance to remove some features and improve performance Select Custom to suit specific needs

36. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Performance Options, Other Tabs Rarely adjust Advanced features –Processor scheduling Programs Background services –Memory usage Programs System cache –Virtual memory Change location of paging file Change size of paging file

37. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Performance Options, Other Tabs (continued) Data Execution Prevention (DEP) Monitors memory –Stops hostile takeovers by viruses and other malware –Does not stop viruses, just makes them less effective –Can monitor all running programs, but resource intensive –Only XP SP2 and later

38. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Resource Tracking Track resources to find and relieve bottlenecks Core Resources –CPU –Memory –Disk –NIC Resource tracking tools –Task Manager (all) –Performance Console (2000/XP) –Sidebar Gadgets (Vista) –Performance and Reliability Monitor (Vista)

39. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Task Manager Task Manager enables real-time tracking –Applications –Processes –Performance Can force programs and processes to stop To start –Press CTRL-SHIFT-ESC –or CTRL-ALT-DEL

40. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Performance Console (2000/XP) One of the Administrative Tools Double-click the Performance shortcut to run

41. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Performance Console (2000/XP) (continued) Performance console contains two utilities –System Monitor snap-in Track resource use and network throughput Collect and view real-time data about memory, disk, processor, network, and other activity in graph, histogram, or report form –Performance Logs and Alerts snap-in Collect performance data from local or remote computers Configure logs to record performance data and set system alerts to notify you when a value is above or below a defined threshold

42. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Performance Console Add counter Legend Value bar Press CTRL-H to highlight one set of data

43. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Objects and Counters An object is a system resource A counter tracks specific information about the object Performance console includes System Monitor –Shows real-time data on objects –Click the + to add counters for new objects

44. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Performance Logs and Alerts Performance Logs and Alerts enables you to create a baseline or log –Record of anything that happens on your computer –Right-click Counter Logs and select New Log Settings –Give it a name and then make your choices

45. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Windows Vista Sidebar Sidebar enables you to load various gadgets Some provide nice diagnostic tools –CPU utilization meter –RAM usage –Network speed and connectivity Start | All Programs | Accessories | Windows Sidebar to add them Or click the + button on the sidebar

46. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Reliability and Performance Monitor (Windows Vista/7) Contains complete Performance Monitor Adds more tools –Resource Overview –Reliability Monitor –Data Collector Sets –Reports Start Performance Information and Tools in Administrative Tools –Opens with Resource Overview

47. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Reliability and Performance Monitor (continued) Resource Overview –Advanced Task Manager for quick glance at what’s in use Performance Monitor –Works the same as the Performance Monitor in XP Reliability Monitor –Describes stability and reports crash dates Data Collector Sets –Tracks all sorts of things –Both user defined and presets –Use Reports to view the results

48. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Windows Broken? It is only a matter of time before something goes wrong with Windows There are things the client and the technician can do to head off problems or minimize potential damage and downtime

49. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Preparing for Problems Tools to prepare for problems in Windows 2000 and Windows XP –Backup Utility (Both) –Emergency Repair Disk (Windows 2000) –Automated System Recovery (Windows XP) –Backup Wizard (Both) Tools to prepare for problems in Windows Vista –Backup and Restore Center Other tools –System Restore (XP/Vista) –Recovery Console (2000/XP) –System Recovery Options (Vista)

50. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Backup Backup program enables you to back up and restore data and system files –Backup or Restore Wizard offers a nice set of features –Deselect the Always start in wizard mode check box for more options Always verify your backup –Would be bad to count on a bad or incomplete backup!

51. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Backup: Advanced Options Different options according to OS Windows 2000: Emergency Repair Disk (ERD) Stores a copy of the Registry in \WINNT\REPAIR Windows XP: Automated System Recovery (ASR) Creates a backup of your system containing the system partition and disks containing the operating system

52. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Backup Wizard Backup program enables you to back up and restore data and system files –Backup System State Data backs up the Registry and other key system data

53. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Backup Options Goal of a good backup is to have the data ready for you quickly in case of a crash Do you need to do a full backup every night? –Most files won’t change –Too time consuming Archive bit indicates that a file has been backed up –Off = backed up and not changed –On = new or changed since last backup

54. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Backup Options Normal backup –Full backup; archive bit is turned off Incremental backup –Backs up all files with archive bit on –Turns archive bit off Differential backup –Backs up all files with archive bit on –Leaves archive bits on

55. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Incremental vs. Differential Both start with full backup Incremental backups stay small, quick Differential get progressively bigger, but require only two restores to restore

56. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Backup and Restore Center Back up files or back up the whole computer Simplified options –Tape not supported –No longer can choose to run incremental or differential

57. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition System Restore System Restore enables you to create a restore point –A copy of your computer’s configuration at a specific point in time –Does not include data, only system configuration –To create a restore point Start | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools | System Restore –A new restore point is automatically created whenever you install new software

58. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition System Restore (continued)

59. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Lab – Create a Snapshot (1) Your company is about to install a new software package You want to make sure you have a backup copy of the system configuration before this new package is installed –Start | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools | System Restore

60. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Lab – Create a Snapshot (2) “Welcome to System Restore” | Create a Restore Point | Before_the_big_install | Create –The computer will create a snapshot of the system settings

61. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Lab – Software, BAD IDEA! The software package has caused strange problems throughout the company You need to bring the computers back to a simpler, happier time –Start | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools | System Restore | Restore my computer to an earlier time –Select the snapshot you made in the previous lab

62. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Recovery Console (2000/XP) Recovery Console offers a command-line interface to help resolve issues such as faulty drivers Access Recovery Console –Run Setup, select Repair and then Recovery Console (lets you run it from the CD) –Or install to your hard drive from XP disc Start | Run | d:\i386\winnt32 /cmdcons (assuming d: is the optical drive letter)

63. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition System Recovery Options (Vista) Graphical Tool –Boot to the Vista (or 7) DVD –Select Repair your computer

64. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Troubleshooting Windows

65. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Troubleshooting Windows Failure to boot Failure to load the GUI Troubleshooting tools in the GUI Troubleshooting application problems

66. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Failure to Boot Common errors –No Boot device present –NTLDR bad or missing –Invalid Boot.ini Three-step response process –Attempt to repair –Attempt to restore –Rebuild

67. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Attempt to Repair (2000/XP) The Recovery Console is a text-mode command interpreter –Separate from the Windows command prompt –Enables you to access the hard drive –Limited access to NTFS and FAT volumes –Requires an Administrator password –Start and stop services, repair the master boot record and boot sector, format volumes –Boot to Windows CD and select Repair –Access preinstalled Recovery Console at startup

68. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Recovery Console Commands

69. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Recovery Console Commands (continued) Chkdsk –Runs CheckDisk Cls –Clear screen Disable and Enable –Disables and enables services or drivers Diskpart –Create or deletes a partition Extract –Brings files in from CAB files Fixboot –Writes a new boot sector partition –If you receive “NTLDR is compressed” Run Recovery Consol | FIXBOOT Fixmbr –Fixes the Master Boot Record

70. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Attempt to Restore (2000/XP) For Windows 2000 –Use ERD –ERD is available only if ERD disk was created For Windows XP, use ASR –ASR Recovery is available only if ASR backup was created –Consider ASR a last resort –Restores to ASR backup point

71. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Rebuild Try to back up or recover data first Recover CDs or recovery partitions, restore system to factory state –All data is lost

72. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Failure to Load GUI Device driver problems –Windows Stop Error –Blue Screen of Death (BSoD)  Remove the device and reboot Registry –BSoD with “Registry File Failure” –“Windows could not start”  Restore the Registry w/ Advanced Startup Options (Last Known Good Configuration) and reboot

73. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Advanced Startup Options Press F8 after POST to launch Advanced Startup Options –Safe Mode –Safe Mode with Networking –Safe Mode with Command Prompt –Enable Boot Logging (creates NTBTLOG.TXT) –Enable VGA Mode/Enable Low-Resolution Mode –Last Known Good Configuration –Directory Services Restore Mode (Server only) –Debugging Mode –Disable Driver Signature Enforcement (Vista) –Start Windows Normally (to abort advanced boot options)

74. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Advanced Startup Options (continued) –Safe Mode Basic files and drivers are loaded with no network Can access Device Manager and restore points in Safe Mode Often works in response to BSoD –Safe Mode with Networking Networking capabilities added –Safe Mode with Command Prompt Command prompt only

75. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Advanced Startup Options (continued) Enable Boot Logging –ntbtlog.txt is located in the %systemroot% folder (commonly C:\Winnt or C:\Windows) Enable VGA Mode –Load driver in standard VGA mode –Allows correction of settings (refresh/resolution) Directory Services Restore Mode –Domain controllers only Debugging Mode –Rarely used

76. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Troubleshooting Tools in the GUI Once in the GUI, can use any tools we’ve discussed or will discuss Event Viewer Device Manager More

77. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Autoloading Programs System Configuration Utility (msconfig) –Can set which programs and services automatically start; can turn services off –Very effective when combating Spyware

78. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Services and System Files Services –If critical services does not start, Windows will give error –Common error: Service set to manual instead of automatic System Files –Corrupted DLL files –Corrected with System File Checker (SFC) –SFC /SCANNOW will verify they are healthy and replace if necessary

79. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition System Restore When you can get into the GUI, use System Restore to load a restore point –Return to working copy of Windows –Will not delete or replace data files –Great “oops” tool

80. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition Application Problems Installation problems –Often lacking supporting program, such as.Net Framework –Download the proper version from Microsoft Compatibility issues –Can try running older applications in compatibility mode –Can also Run as administrator in Vista Problems with uninstalling –Usually a lack of privilege –Right-click and Run as administrator

81. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Mike Meyers’ CompTIA A+ ® Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs Third Edition