mercoledì 17 ottobre 2007

Starting Mac OS X in safe mode

Booting up Mac OS X in safe mode can solve some troubleshooting issues.

Beginning with Mac OS X version 10.2 and later it is possible to start the operating system in a special mode called "Safe Boot".
To do so you must press the shift key, just after switching on your Mac and holding it down until you see the spinning gear under the gray apple.

Find out what maintenance procedures are run, reading this Apple knowledge base article.

mercoledì 3 ottobre 2007

Windows XP desktop disappeared

What if one day you turn on your PC and instead of displaying the desktop full of icons you'll just see the wallpaper.
And worse, even rebooting in safe mode has the same result.

Before preparing to reinstall the operating system you can try this.

Bring up task manager pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del. Choose "New task" from the File menu.
Type regedit in the run box and search for the following registry key.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution.options

There should be two subkeys. One named explorer.exe and the other iexplore.exe.
Delete both keys, close the Registry editor and restart the computer.