Booting Win2k Without GUI

  • Thread starter Thread starter Helmut
  • Start date Start date
H

Helmut

How do you start a Windows 2000 computer without loading
the graphical interface. All I want is the machine to
boot and give me a "DOS" prompt, while recognizing the
hard drives and my ZIP250 removable drive
 
Greetings --

You don't.

There is no way to reboot a Win2K PC into Real Mode DOS unless
you've set up a dual-boot system. The WinNT family of 32-bit
graphical operating systems, of which Win2K is a member, has never
used or included MS-DOS. The closest they have is the Command Prompt
window.

Win2K, like its predecessor WinNT, is a pure 32-bit GUI OS, and
does not include or "ride upon" any version of DOS, as did Win3.x &
Win9x/Me. Win2K does include a command-line emulator for those times
when GUI applets are unnecessary/redundant, but it cannot be started
in "DOS mode."


Bruce Chambers

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Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH
 
If you're after real DOS mode you can't do it, as Bruce says.

If you just want to save keystrokes getting to the W2k DOS emulator, one
easy way is to create a desktop icon pointing to cmd.com, then adjusting
permanent settings to your satisfaction. You might experiment with then
adding that icon to your startup list.

The desktop will always be there.
 
You can set the Reg_Sz string value of;
"Shell"="Explorer.exe"
to the full path of the program you wish to start by default. found at
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

So setting
"Shell"="C:\winnt\system32\cmd.exe"
may work for you
 
Hi Dave,
Sorry, did not work for me. But I will try some
variations of it. There could be potential in the idea.
HE
-----Original Message-----
You can set the Reg_Sz string value of;
"Shell"="Explorer.exe"
to the full path of the program you wish to start by default. found at
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

So setting
"Shell"="C:\winnt\system32\cmd.exe"
may work for you

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft MVP [Windows NT/2000 Operating Systems]

Helmut said:
How do you start a Windows 2000 computer without loading
the graphical interface. All I want is the machine to
boot and give me a "DOS" prompt, while recognizing the
hard drives and my ZIP250 removable drive
Click to expand...


.
Click to expand...
 
Greetings --

You're welcome.

Bruce Chambers

--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH
 
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