When Windows goes bad, sometimes it goes really bad. I’ve had situations where the video driver was messed up and the whole system just froze. So, I know that there are times when you really have to force Windows to do what you want. For example, if the whole system has locked up and you can’t shut down or restart, you need a way to get Windows to boot to DOS or Safe Mode. The answer to this problem is the F8 key.
In other words, while the system is turning itself on, press the F8 key (it’s one of the function keys along the top of the keyboard). Magically, a little text menu appears that lets you press 1. to boot normally but also has other options to let you go into Safe Mode or DOS Mode.
If you have trouble hitting F8 at just the right time, there is also a way of displaying the menu automatically, but it requires editing one of Windows’ hidden files. It may seem like a pain, but I know that when I was endlessly dealing with problems on an unstable Windows 95 system, having that little menu come up was a good thing. So, here’s what you need to do.
In Windows, choose Start|Programs|Windows Explorer. In the root directory (C:) find a file called Msdos.sys. It’s a hidden file, so it will only appear if Explorer is set up to Show All Files. (If you don’t know how, go to www.cc-tips.com archive and read the Reinvent Your Desktop column where I explain it.)
First make a copy of the file and put it into another folder as a backup, just in case. Now, right-click the file and choose Properties. Remove the Read-only attribute.
Open a DOS window by choosing Start|Programs|MS-DOS prompt.
In the window type "edit C:msdos.sys" (without the quotes and be sure there is a space between the word edit and the C:)
Now in the [Options] section add the following:
BootMenu=1
BootMenuDefault=1
BootMenuDelay=4
Now choose File|Save to save the file. Then File|Exit to get out of the editor. Now type Exit to get out of the DOS window. Go back into Windows Explorer, right click on Msdos.sys and put a checkmark next to Read-only again.
Now every time you boot up Windows, you can select which mode you want it to go into. If you do nothing, it just goes into Windows normally after 4 seconds.