Should I use, Safe Mode, LKGC, or restore ?

Hi,

This question comes up again and again in sample tests,
but can you tell me what is the definitive way to know when
to use Last Known Good and When to use Safe Mode, and when
to use System Restore.

Thanks, ric

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Comments

royal

Can't boot up and keep crashing when you start up? Use Last Known Good Configuration and see if that works.

Still can't get in? Safe Mode and figure it out. Can even do a System Restore in safe mode if it's causing you issues from booting in but last known good config won't let you in.

No problems booting up but an application causing you problems due to whatever registry modifications it made or for whatever reason? System Restore which will remove the application nd restore registry to that point in time.

Keep in mind that last known good config won't always work. What Windows thinks is a healthy boot might not be a healthy boot to you. If you have a driver issue, you can even try uninstalling the driver or doing a rollback if it's causing you issues.

susuandme

thanks for y our help, I might come up against these questions
again, they always ask them, so for booting problems or maybe
some driver problems use last known good,

for application problems and registry use, system restore,

for driver problems use safe mode,

You didn't mention the thing about Logging on with the last known good,

thankyou again, ric

jibbajabba

susuandme wrote:

for application problems and registry use, system restore,

Actually, this might be "Last Known Configuration" too ... It depends which registry keys were changed ..

When you start the computer the normal way, it will also load the configurations stored in

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet]

When you use the last known configuration, it will load

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSetXX]

Where XX is a number between 01 and for example 03 ...

So if you do a "catastrophic configuration change " which didn't work out - use the Last Known Good configuration ..

Use the Last Known Good Configuration feature when you cannot start Windows XP after you make a change to your computer, or when you suspect that a change that you just made may cause a problem. For example, you can use this feature if you cannot start Windows XP after you install a new driver for your video adapter, or if you installed an incorrect driver and have not yet restarted your computer.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307852

You use Safe mode when you need to remove driver which are in use when the system is up .. Maybe when driver got corrupted due to a filesystem problem etc.

royal

susuandme wrote:

You didn't mention the thing about Logging on with the last known good,

Sure I did. In the first sentence and throughout the rest of my post. Or are you asking how to do it? If that's what you're asking, right before Windows shows its logo press f8. It's the same screen that will give you the options for Safe Mode.

And as I explained, any time you have an issue starting up, try last known good config. If that doesn't work, that's when you start trying safe mode, system restore, driver rollback/uninstall, etc. as I explained in my above post.