easiest way to achieve the BSOD upon reboot?

[sobriquet]

Hi.

Using a screen recorder and virtualization software, I'm making a
video tutorial demonstrating the virtues of running a virtual machine
and for this purpose I intentionally want to mess up an xp
installation to demonstrate how easy it is to recover from a
disastrous situation (like a Blue Screen Of Death when you reboot) by
reverting to a snapshot prepared in advance.
One method to achieve this, is to go to C:\windows\system32 (assuming
windows is installed in C:\windows),
and simply delete as many files as you can in that location.
The problem with this method, is that many files are locked by the
system, so the deletion process aborts every time it encounters a file
that is in use by the system.
If you continue by deselecting the topmost selected file or folder and
pressing <shift>-delete again and confirming the notification that
you're about to delete certain files or folders, you can delete most
of the files in system32 and if you reboot the virtual machine, the
BSOD occurs, as desired. Subsequently, you can simply revert to a
snapshot and within seconds, the xp installation is up and running
again as if nothing ever happened.

Does anyone know of any particular crucial file in system32 (or
somewhere else) that is not in use by the system
when you run it in normal mode, but will result in the dreaded BSOD
when you attempt to reboot?

Kind regards and thanks in advance for any suggestions, Niek

 

[John John (MVP)]

Windows feature lets you generate a memory dump file by using the keyboard
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/244139/

John

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hi.

Using a screen recorder and virtualization software, I'm making a
video tutorial demonstrating the virtues of running a virtual machine
and for this purpose I intentionally want to mess up an xp
installation to demonstrate how easy it is to recover from a
disastrous situation (like a Blue Screen Of Death when you reboot) by
reverting to a snapshot prepared in advance.
One method to achieve this, is to go to C:\windows\system32 (assuming
windows is installed in C:\windows),
and simply delete as many files as you can in that location.
The problem with this method, is that many files are locked by the
system, so the deletion process aborts every time it encounters a file
that is in use by the system.
If you continue by deselecting the topmost selected file or folder and
pressing <shift>-delete again and confirming the notification that
you're about to delete certain files or folders, you can delete most
of the files in system32 and if you reboot the virtual machine, the
BSOD occurs, as desired. Subsequently, you can simply revert to a
snapshot and within seconds, the xp installation is up and running
again as if nothing ever happened.

Does anyone know of any particular crucial file in system32 (or
somewhere else) that is not in use by the system
when you run it in normal mode, but will result in the dreaded BSOD
when you attempt to reboot?

Kind regards and thanks in advance for any suggestions, Niek

I read this (untried) recipe some time ago:
[HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\i8042prt\Parameters]
Set "CrashOnCtrlScroll"=dword:00000001
Once you've added this, restart the PC. Test it by holding down the
right-hand Ctrl key and press the scroll lock key twice.