Troubleshooting Operating Systems
- Windows Recovery Environment
- WinRE (Windows recovery environment)
- WinRE provides access to essential troubleshooting tools
- WinPE (Windows pre-installation environment)
- Advanced options offer System Restore, System Images, & more
- Command Prompt option opens the Windows Command Shell.
- Advanced Startup Options
- To get to ‘Safe mode’ options in Windows 8/10, select option in ‘System Configuration’ for Safe boot.
- Alternatively, intentionally crash your system several times in a row to get Advanced options.
- ‘Startup Settings’ offer debugging, boot logging, Safe Mode, & more.
- Troubleshooting Boot Problems
- A black screen on a booted computer often indicates a video driver problem.
- Get to Safe Mode & try “Roll Back Driver” or “Update Driver” in Device Manager.
- Other errors like no boot device; check boot order in System setup;
- Major failure after installing a new device? Uninstall the device and try again.
- Troubleshooting at the GUI
- Try rebooting when you encounter a startup problem.
- Check the logs in ‘Event Viewer’ in ‘Safe Mode’.
- Try ‘Autorun’ from ‘Sysinternals’ for stopping programs that land on boot.
- Create a new user account & copy old profile to try to recover from corrupted profile.
- Troubleshooting Applications
- Try ‘Task Manager’ to find & kill programs hogging CPU or disk with a slowly running computer.
- System running slow (and not due to Malware)
- With application crashes, try repair or reinstallation.
- With services that fail to start, start it manually in ‘Services Administrative Tool’, or check ‘Event Viewer’ for details.
- Kernel Panic
- Kernel Panic means the OS is crashing and can’t recover–shows BSoD.
- Most BSoDs caused by hardware compatibility–try updating drivers.
- Check ‘Event Viewer’ in ‘Safe Mode’ for clues.
- Kernel panics can manifest by:
- SPoD (Spinning Pinwheel of Death)
- BSoD (Blue Screen of Death)
