I know that there has been many at times, when for some reason or the other, people would want to disable the ability of Windows XP to boot into safe mode. Even though that this is not a very thing advisable thing to do, but still, people, due to some reasons best known to them would always want to do this.

The other day, a friend of mine who works in (manages is the right word) a cyber cafe was heads over toes, trying to figure out to to disable the safe mode boot in Windows XP. His reason..... customers are hacking into their computers and browsing free of charge by booting into safe mode when none of the cybercafe staffs are around to monitor them.

I have also seen a case of someone who wants to disable safe mode boot cos' he doesnt want his friends (room-mates) to have access to his system's root admin. Despite my advice to this guy to put a password in there instead of disabling safe mode boot, it all fell on deaf ears. Says they have dealt with him ruthlessely.

Well, I decided to help me friend (The cyber cafe manager) to solve his problem. I engaged myself on researching through the internet to fish out ways through which I can tackle this problem for him. After rumaging through the internet for days, I finally landed myself on 2 very good and working options.

Here we go..........


1. DISABLING THE SAFE MODE BOOT ON WINDOWS XP BY EDITTING WINDOWS XP'S NTLDR.SYS FILE.

I bet whomsoever is reading through this tutorial would by now, be thinking..."Ain't this guy crazy???", "How the hell does he expect me to edit ntldr.sys.?", "What happens after editing the damn file and my computer refuses to boot?", Does that mean that I am in for a reformat?"......

The following tut will answer all those questions cos' I have test ran the whole procedure on my PC and it worked perfectly.

The process is done by editing NTLDR.SYS in hex mode. You will need a software called 010 editor. This is a hex/binary editor and it will enable you to edit any file you want in either binary of hex mode. Download this software from www.sweetscape.com/010editor/ and install it into your computer.

Secondly, Open windows explorer (Double click the My Computer icon on the desktop or Click start, goto run and type C:\Windows\explorer.exe\ to start Windows Explorer). Look at the file menu and click on tools. Click on Folder Options among the drop down menu and goto the VIEW TAB. Find and enable Show Hidden Files and Folders and also Find and disableHIDE PROTECTED OPERATING SYSTEM FILES (RECOMMENDED). Click on Apply and OK to exit the menu.

Then, goto your system's root drive (partition) which is usually C:\ (Unless otherwise renamed). You will find out that there are several other files in there which you most probably, have never seen before. Those are the protected system files and are not meant to be tampered. Now, find the ntldr.sys and right click and click on properties. Uncheck the read only option. Apply and OK.

Now, go back and launch the 010 editor. Click on file, Open and select the ntldr.sys file. You will see that this file has been opened in hex mode (All you will see there will be 0s and 1s and some letters here and there). At the options, click on SEARCH and select Find.

In the Find dialog box, click the Type menu and select Hex Bytes (h).
In the value field, enter CD 16 0F 85 09. Then click Find All.
The found value should now appear in the bottom pane of the 010 Editor window. Click on the CD 16 0F 85 09 value, and then hit Ctrl+R on the keyboard.

Now locate the Value field in the Replace With portion of the Replace dialog box and enter CD 16 90 90 90. Then click the Replace button.
If you receive a warning message that no more occurrences exist, click OK. Then click Close to exit from the Replace dialog box.
You should now see the new value, (CD 16 90 90 90), displayed in the lower pane of the 010 Editor window.
You can now close the editor. When prompted to save the changes to the ntldr file, click Yes. Then reboot the system.
Now if you hit F8 to interrupt the boot sequence, you’ll see the Safe Mode boot options but no keystrokes will be accepted. Instead, you’ll have to sit and wait 30 seconds for the Safe Mode boot options to timeout and for Windows to start normally or the OS simply wont respond to the F8 keystrokes. Anyone now trying to access safe mode will have 30 seconds to bang on the keyboard and turn red while they wait.

Keep in mind that if ntldr is updated via a service pack or patch that you’ll need to repeat this process to again disable Safe Mode boots.

 

 

 

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BEWARE: Modifying NTLDR without Microsoft's consent will break your EULA and invalidate your license!! Not to say you're doing something illegal. This is the best thing I found so far for disabling f8 legally:

http://guino.home.insightbb.com/nosafemode.html

 

 

 

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well disabling safe boot is a bad choice. i recommend using a software is like the "system restore" of xp. safe boot is a life saver when your windows is acting up.

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Yes. This is illegal, and will un-license your product of Microsoft. If someone was to do something in your Tutorial and it was wrong, then there PC will mess up and hold you responsible. I recommend you or anyone not to edit their ntldr file.
-Sky

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