windows start problem

[skeeter]

My daughter's managed to mess up her sister's computer. It either hangs at the windows screen or reboots. Any ideas on what to look at?

[ktkendall]

Try to get into safe mode by pressing F8 right before windows starts to load. If that works then you should be able to undo, uninstall or somehow fix whatever she did..If you get in that way but can not figure it out you can boot the same way by pressing F8 and getting that optional boot menu and just boot to command prompt and use scanreg /restore and pick a registry file that was before she messed it up, this should work but can cause other problems, so Its best to see if you can get in safe mode first and undo whatever she did. Maybe she can clue you in to what she did to help you trac it down...

[skeeter]

Thanks ktkendall
She had no clue to what she did but is computer literate enough to follow directions. We picked up an earlier registry file and it did the trick. She is ok (for now)

[ktkendall]

Great, the only time that might be a problem is if you installed new programs that rely on registry settings, and they probably would just need reinstalled, but you are probably good since she probably just accidentally changed a setting or something...