Its a troubleshooting/diagnosis option in Windows that starts your computer in a limited state with only the essential drivers, services and files needed to boot Windows. Network and Video drivers are not loaded in safe mode. That’s the reason you see a low desktop resolution in safe mode.

There are  3 ways to start Safe Mode:

1. Safe Mode (The default one with no internet)
2. Safe Mode with Networking (the one with internet)
3. Safe Mode with Command Prompt.

People usually get rid off their Spywares in this mode. So this manual troubleshooting and fixing is the option for manual eradication of spyware as only the bare minimum files are loaded in this mode and lets you delete files easily which are unable to delete in the normal mode.

How to start Windows Xp in Safe mode?

1. Press F8 before the Windows Xp Splash screen(see image below) shows up.

2. The Windows Advanced Options Menu is loaded.

3. Use keyboard arrow keys to select the type of Safe mode you want – default or with networking or just the command prompt. Click Enter.

4. Now the Windows Xp will start in Safe mode.

How to start Windows Vista in Safe mode?

1. Start pressing F8 as soon the computer starts, to open the Advanced Options Menu.

2. Use keyboard arrow keys to select the type of Safe mode you want – default or with networking or just the command prompt. Click Enter.

3. Now the Windows Vista will start in Safe mode.

How to start Windows 7 in Safe mode?

1. Start pressing F8 as soon the computer starts, to open the Advanced Options Menu.

2. The first option is “Repair your computer”, “Safe Mode” is from the second option. Use keyboard arrow keys to select the type of Safe mode you want – default or with networking or just the command prompt. Click Enter.

3. Now the Windows 7 will start in Safe mode.

Note: When you have Multiple Windows to boot, select the Windows version you want to enter into using the arrow keys on the “Boot Loader Menu” and start pressing F8 key to open the Advanced Options Menu.

Using the System Configuration Utility for Windows Xp

1. Click Start, Run and type MSCONFIG in the open box and click OK
2. The System Configuration Utility opens up, On the BOOT.INI tab, Check the “/SAFEBOOT” option, and then click OK and Restart your computer when prompted.
3. The computer restarts in Safe mode.
4. Perform the troubleshooting steps for which you are using Safe Mode.
5. When you are finished with troubleshooting in Safe mode, open MSCONFIG again, on the BOOT.INI tab,  uncheck “/SAFEBOOT” and click OK to restart your computer in normal mode.

Using the System Configuration Utility for Windows Vista/Windows 7

1. Open up start menu > run, and type in msconfig and hit the enter key.
2. Select the Boot tab, and then check the box for “Safe boot” and make sure the radio button below is set to “Minimal”. Minimal is equivalent of the default safe mode in Advanced Options Menu.
   
3. After you press the OK button, you’ll be asked if you want to Restart now or wait until later. Press Restart now to restart your computer in safe mode immediately, or press wait until later, the next boot will take you into safe mode.
4. After starting into the safe mode, the “safe mode” text is placed corners of the screen,it also opens up the safe mode page from the help file in Windows 7 or Vista.

Note:  To Turn Safe Mode Back Off

Once you are done troubleshooting whatever you were working on, to turn safe mode off and go back to normal mode. Just open up msconfig the same way as above, and then on the Boot tab and uncheck the “Safe boot” checkbox.

Fix Ntoskrnl.exe Errors
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Fix bootmgr is missing
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How to Fix User32.dll Error – c0000135 Blue screen of death
How to Fix “Corefoundation.Dll Is Missing” Error?
]]> What is Bootmgr?

To know this, lets understand how Windows vista and Windows 7, and any Windows OS that is released after Windows Vista loads up after switching the computer power on.

As soon as you switch the computer power on > BIOS is  loaded > which loads MBR (Master boot record) from hard disk or usb drive > Which then loads Boot sector (the portion on the hard disk or usb drive) > which then executes Boot Manager which is Bootmgr file!

It then finds active partition on the disk to read boot configuration data which loads the Windows Vista or Window 7!

So now, you understand what part does bootmgr play in loading up the OS.

The problem – Bootmgr is missing!

When Bootmgr is missing, you see the boot process is stopped right at the Boot sector which is unable to find the Boot manager. Boot Manager is now unable to invoke winload.exe file to load ntoskrnl.exe (OS kernel) and device drivers (boot drivers)!

You can see from the screenshot above that winload.exe is unable to load.

The solution – How to fix “Bootmgr is missing”

As you can see the solution is evident from the above screen grab.

1. Set your computer to boot from DVD (using the Boot setting in the BIOS).
2. Insert Windows Vista or Windows 7 DVD.
3. Restart the computer.
4. After booting from the DVD, the installation screen prompts you to choose Languages to install, Time and currency format and keyboard or input method. The values would be for ex. English, English (United States) and US respectively. Click Next to continue.
5. Now instead of proceeding to install, look for the link in the lower left hand corner, “Repair your computer”. Click on it.
6. You need the select the correct installation directory to repair if you have more than 1 installation of Windows Vista or 7. Then click next.
7. You are now taken to the “System recovery options”. Click the first one in the list, Startup Repair.
   
8. The installation program now repairs the Operating system, fixing the Bootmgr in the process. When its done, restart and the error is gone!

Note: You can alternatively execute the boot repair from the command window. Just insert DVD and choose command prompt. Type bootrec /fixboot as shown in the screen grab below,

Overtime your PC slows down. Or it is already slowing down. Slow starting up or shutting down. Applications take long time to open. Even sometimes you hear the hard drive making noises. Despite having the latest Windows with all update fixes, constant crud inducing habits such as installing and uninstalling of programs can make your PC sluggish.

I am in this article going to talk about how to clean it up without having to reformat your hard disk or reinstall Windows or doing anything to overhaul it from the scratch. But simple fixes that takes the crud out of your computer and prevent those cluttering habits here on.

Why PC slows down? Possible Hardware issues and fixes.

• Over heating of processor:

  Problem	Solution
  Cooler fans that’s mounted on processor gets dust and slows down. This heats up the processor. Upon reaching certain temperature set in the BIOS, the system slows down.	To fix this, make sure the fan is clean. Take your laptop or terminal to service center, and ask them to clean up all the dust. You can do this yourself if you have previously opened your terminal or laptop.

• Hard drive failures from bad sectors:

  Problem	Solution
  Over time, hard disk starts to develop bad sectors  (Sectors are small data units on hard disk), from frequent data usage. In that case the new data are automatically copied to free or good sectors. But this wont happen exactly as is, the data might end up on bad sectors resulting in the failure of that data. As the drive starts to fail, this would then happen often.	To fix this, turn on SMART features in the BIOS  to let the SMART diagnose alert the failure immediately. In addition to that, benchmark tools such as Fresh Diagnose or Aida64 (previously known as Everest) helps to run results of your system hardware and know its current status to easily determine whether to carry on with it or buy a new one.

Why Windows slows down with use? Tracking down and cleaning out the crud.

Moving on to Windows itself now. There are three main causes that stems with the long time usage of Windows. Those are Cluttered up Windows Registry, multiple copies of program associated library files, back ground services and tasks, and fragmented hard drive. As you install and uninstall more programs, the Registry gets ballooned up, as well as creating a lot of junk and associated library files, such as the DLL files and as well as making the hard disk more fragmented. Now lets talk about these issues one by one.

• Windows Registry:

  Problem

  Solution

  Windows registry is a database where windows stores application install and configuration settings, hardware settings etc… Installing and uninstalling program, overtime can balloon up the size of registry. The size of it is about more than a quarter of my memory on my PC here, which is about 425 MB of registry database itself. Larger application like Anti Virus, Video Players stores its data on multiple location in the Registry. Added to that, incomplete uninstallation never totally clean sweep the registry off its obsolete data. This makes retrieving the needed data from the registry harder, as a result application takes long time to load.

  To fix this, as opposed to what other computer professionals believe in, I tend use registry cleaner and it works pretty well for me. Windows registry is a complicated database, but that doesn’t necessarily mean  computer vision or Artificial intelligence cannot put the maintenance of registry on automation to atleast some extent. An automated registry maintenance involves, complete backup of entire Windows registry and associate a system restore point, before performing its operation on it. It can clear up obsolete entries left by uninstallation of programs, duplicated and invalid entries with ease. This ensure clearing up of atleast 50-150 MB. In addition to that it can defragment Registry Hives (the parts of registry).

• Junk background services and task :

  Problem

  Solution

  Installing programs often also adds more to the background services. You can check how many background services that are running by going to Start > Run > services.msc and take a look at a list of services that are Enabled. In addition to background services, also the ones that run during system start up in the memory. This can be a problem when that particular program takes more memory or CPU. You can check the system start up list by going to Start > Run > msconfig.

  To fix this, Soluto can help you with the community-driven data. Soluto lets you turn off unwanted start up programs and background windows services and speeds up boot time. Also you could go to taskmanager (Start > Run > taskmgr) or Windows Resource Monitor (Start > Run > resmon) and monitor the cpu and memory usage. Shutdown the program that is not currently necessary. I personally use Process Explorer which shows processes in a tree view and has a lot of options. You could as well defragment page file or the virtual memory with PageDefrag. This enables quick access of data in page file and hence a little faster system.

• Fragmented Hard disk:

  Problem	Solution
  Over the time with creation and deletion of files and programs, the hard disk becomes fragmented. When the hard disk is almost full that swapping memory on to it (for page file or virtual memory) becomes an issue, the system slows down.	To fix this, run disk clean up tool, by going to Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup. Make sure you only delete the temporary files, and not the system restore point or shadow copy files. Also don’t compress unused system files. Defragment fragmented hard disk. Run this when you don’t need much system use, as defragmenting will keep your system busy and hence slow.

Now that you have seen how easy it is to clear out the crud from your PC, lets talk about how to prevent it from happening again, and totally avoid reformatting hard disk or reinstalling windows to get back that new PC again.

Steps to maintaining a clean PC.

1. When installing a new program, see if the application has an advanced option. Make sure to use it. You could set the location to install, choose what components and extra utilities to install, and as well turn off running at system startup or quick launch setup if you don’t want.
2. Use Soluto with msconfig and services.msc to turn off unwanted background services and program running on memory at system start up.
3. Use disk cleanup tool to clean temporary internet and installation files.
4. Auto schedule disk defragment to run once a week.
5. Make sure to not install any browser addons as that might install malwares and crudwares.
6. Defrag Registry and clean it up with a registry cleaner tool.

Recommended third party tools (5 options).

1. registry cleaner
2. Aida64
3. Soluto
4. Process Explorer
5. PageDefrag

Process Explorer, shows the break down of sub process, showing memory usage of each one, helping you find what actually accounts for more of the overall memory usage of the process.

If in any case you are not aware of a particular sub process, google it to see if its a spyware and fix it.

Click on the image for full screen view. To get an interface like what you see in this image, in the Process Explorer, go View > Select Columns>Process memory tab. Check “Working set size”. Click OK. This will now show RAM/memory usage. Then, in main window, look for “System” process. Expand it, so sub processes are shown.

As you can see from the image above, the problem lies with the svchost.exe while i was expecting AVG module, avgwdsvc.exe to be the culprit. In that case, uninstalling AVG and reinstalling the latest version seldom helps. Looking for an alternative such as Avast or even better a paid one such as Kaspersky helps.

After examining, it seems that svchost should be a process on its own and in some cases it gets nested under system when sub process of svchost accessing that of system.

Researching more, shows that avdwdsvc.exe which is known as AVG Watchdog, a service that monitors other AVG components, to be examined. As expected the problem lies here. Seems like there is a memory leak, ie. more memory usage.

To fix this disable AVG watch dog service. To do that, go Start Button > Run > type services.msc. Find the service ‘AVG8 Watch Dog’, right click on it, click disable. Exit and reboot. By then the problem must be solved if not uninstall AVG.

To prevent high memory usage of processes, its must to have a reliable Registry Optimizer Tool, in addition to a firewall, antispyware and antivirus program. This is because, after a spyware fix, its must to clean its remnant, to avoid invalid registry entries slowing down your PC.

A user32.dll file is a part of Windows User API (Application Programming Interface). Its one of those files that interact between users inputs (from the programs) and windows OS. Most of the programs depend on this file. So its dangerous to remove this.

To fix the problem related to User32.dll, the following steps help,

1. Turn on windows automatic update. If you haven't already, click the start button, click Run, type sysdm.cpl, click Automatic Updates tab and choose "Automatic (recommended) Automatically download recommended updates for my computer and install them" and click ok.
    
2. If there is an User32.dll error after installing a program or hardware driver, uninstall that program and reboot your PC. Maybe there is a fault with that program or driver and you need to install the latest version of it.
    
3. If above steps failed, problem lies with the User32.dll file itself. Get a Windows OS CD that you installed your current version of windows with. Open the CD drive folder, navigate to i386 folder, and find User32.dl_. Copy that somewhere temporarily and rename it to User32.dll. Copy that now to C:\Windows\System32 folder, when prompted to rewrite that, hit ok.
   • If your prefer using recovery console, in case when you are unable to boot the PC. Insert the Windows OS CD, xp or vista or windows 7, whatever you have installed. Select the right booting if you have multiple boots. Enter password when prompted. A blank password for the windows xp home edition. When the welcome screen appears type R to start Recovery console. At the command prompt type, expand [CD ROM DRIVE]:\i386\user32.dl_ c:\windows\system32. CD ROM DRIVE is the drive letter for cd rom. In my PC its J:\. Type Exit, hit enter and restart the PC, remove the CD Rom for the normal boot.

This must do it for you. If not, you can use system restore to a point closer to today's point. Also i recommend that you clean the mess off your PC's registry using a Registry Optimizer Tool to keep your PC's health in good condition, in addition to of course, antivirus, antispyware and disk tool checkups.

Disable Automatic Disk Defragmentation

The Automatic Disk Defragmentation feature in Windows is designed to maintain the health of the operating system. However, it also makes Windows run a little slower. You can put an end to this by disabling the feature and manually running at your leisure. To do so, click “Start” and select “Computer.” Next, right click on your primary hard drive and select “Properties.” Lastly, select the “Tools” tab, click “Defragment Now” and uncheck the “Run on a schedule” option.

Utilize ReadyBoost

ReadyBoost is a built-in Windows 7 feature that allows you to use a USB flash drive to enhance system performance. How is this possible? The drive itself acts as additional computer memory!

In order to make use of this feature, you will need a USB drive with at least 2 GB of space. From there, you simply connect the drive to your computer, click “Start” and select “Computer.” Next, click on the USB drive and select “ReadyBoost.” Lastly, select “Use this device” and choose as much capacity as possible below on the “Space to reserve for system speed” slide.

Disable Windows Transparency

The transparency of windows is a great perk from a presentation aspect, but this may not be the case for those with older hardware as it can drastically impact performance. The good thing is that transparency can be disabled with ease. Simply right-click on your desktop, select “Personalize,” choose the active theme and then navigate to “Windows Color.” Finally, uncheck the “Enable Transparency” option.

Disable Unwanted Features

There may be numerous Windows 7 features that you really don’t need. These same features could also slow down your computer. To disable them, click on “Start,” choose “Control Panel” and then select “Programs and features.” Next, select the “Turn Windows features on or off” option, navigate through the list and uncheck all the features you want to disable. Once you are done, simply click “OK” to remove those features.

Disable Startup Services

Startup services are notorious for slowing down performance in XP and Vista. The same holds true for Windows 7. You can disable unwanted services by hitting “Start,” typing “msconfig” in the search bar and clicking “Enter.” Click the “Services Tab” on the next window and deselect the services you do not want to automatically run at startup. While this all depends on preference, services that impact performance the most include “Offline Files,” “Tablet PC Input Services,” Terminal Services,” “Fax” and “Windows Search.”

Disable Minimizing/Maximizing Animations

Many users have already fallen in love with the minimizing and maximizing animation effects of windows. However, some may find it irritating after a while as it can eventually lead to slowdowns. If you want to disable this function, hit “Start,” enter “System Properties Performance” in the search bar and click “OK.” On the next screen, deselect the “Animate window when minimizing and maximizing” option and click “OK.”

Update Your Windows 7 Drivers

Lastly, ensure that you have the latest device drivers made specifically for Windows 7. Since your PC can have hundreds of drivers installed in it at any given time, this task can be tedious. Luckily there are 3^rd party utilities out thee such as DriverFinder™, which can greatly speed up this process.