Rebuild boot sector (complicated)
Problem:
Windows 10 not booting – blinking cursor or can’t find installation
Solution:
Bring up the command prompt:
Boot from any DVD or USB Windows 7, 8, or 10 media.
Once you have reached the Windows Setup screen (where you select the Language, Time and Keyboard settings), press the SHIFT + F10 keys to bring up the Command Prompt.
Find out whether your disk is set to GUID Partition Table (GPT) or Master Boot Record (MBR):
In the Command Prompt, type diskpartand press Enter.
Type list disk and press Enter.
Look for your disk and see if the GPT column has an asterisk (*) – this will indicate the disk is GPT. If no asterisk is found, then the disk is set as MBR.
Type exit and press Enter.
If the type is MBR:
From the Command Prompt, type dir a: and press Enter.
If drive A: is found and a directory is displayed, check for the Windows folder in the directory. If it is there, that is the System Drive. Skip to step 2.
If the drive is not found or it doesn’t contain the Windows folder, type dir b: and press Enter. Continue through the alphabet until the drive with the Windows folder is found, but skip the X: drive. That will be the install files from the USB or DVD you are using. The most common location is the C: drive, so that example will be used in the rest of the article.
Once it is found, type:bcdboot C:Windows /S C:
In this case, C is the drive where Windows folder was found. If the Windows folder is on a different drive, use that drive letter instead of “C” in the bcdboot command above.
The message Boot files successfully created must be shown before you can continue.
Type: diskpart and press Enter.
Type: list disk and press Enter.
Type: sel disk C and press Enter.
In this case, C is the drive where Windows folder was found. If the Windows folder is on a different drive, use that drive letter instead of “C” in the sel disk command above.
Type: list vol and press Enter.
Type: sel vol C and press Enter.
In this case, C is the drive where Windows folder was found. If the Windows folder is on a different drive, use that drive letter instead of “C” in the sel disk command above.
Type: active and press Enter.
You should get a confirmation that the volume has been successfully set as active. If you don’t get the confirmation, it means that either the disk is set to GPT (not MBR), or there is a problem with the disk. Make sure you are working with the right disk.
Type: exit and press Enter.
Reboot the device – you can do this quickly from the command prompt by typing: shutdown -f -r -t 00 and press Enter.
If the type is GPT:
From the Command Prompt, type dir a: and press Enter.
If drive A: is found and a directory is displayed, check for the Windows folder in the directory. If it is there, that is the System Drive. Skip to step 2.
If the drive is not found or it doesn’t contain the Windows folder, type dir b: and press Enter. Continue through the alphabet until the drive with the Windows folder is found, but skip the X: drive. That will be the install files from the USB or DVD you are using. The most common location is the C: drive, so that example will be used in the rest of the article.
Type: diskpart and press Enter.
Type: list disk and press Enter
Type: sel disk C and press Enter.
In this case, C is the drive where Windows folder was found. If the Windows folder is on a different drive, use that drive letter instead of “C” in the sel disk command above.
Type: list part and press Enter.
Look for the partition labeled as System.
Once it is found, assign the letter R to the partition. If the letter R is already taken, you can choose any unassigned letter. To assign the letter type: assign letter=r: and press Enter.
Type: exit and press Enter.
Return to the command prompt, type the following one line at a time, pressing Enter after each line:
cd /d r:EFIMicrosoftBoot
ren BCD BCD.bak
bcdboot c:Windows /l en-us /s m: /f UEFI
Note The /l en-us part of the command sets the Windows language to English. To set a different language, replace en-us with a different language code (such as de-de for German).
Print spooler keeps crashing
Problem:
No printers show up in the printer section of control panel. This is a result of the print spooler crashing. if you go in and manually restart the print spooler it runs until you try to do anything related to the printer then crashes again.
Solution:
Usually this is the result of corrupt print drivers (possible virus infection causing the corruption. Make sure to run a quick malware scan). You may need to uninstall print drivers completely – including the registry entries.
If it is a local printer (My Computer), go to the following registry keys and delete the respective entries:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlPrintEnvironments Windows NT x86 DriversVersion-2
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlPrintPrinters
If it is a network printer (network printer server or ), go to the following registry keys and delete the respective and entries:
HKEY_CURRENT_USERPrintersConnections
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlPrintProviders LanMan Print ServicesServersPrinters
After the registry edit, you need to stop and restart the spooler service. At this point, you’ll be able to reinstall the printer driver correctly.
Stuck on a Pop Up!
Problem:
Ever have one of those terrible pop ups “YOUR COMPUTER IS INFECTED!!!!!” trap you on a page while it blares loud warnings that the FBI is coming to raid your house and steal you cat? It happens to every one of my clients sooner or later. So how do you get out of it?
Solution:
It’s a CTRL-ALT-DEL and kill the browser. But there’s a catch! Most browsers will offer to “restore session” when you bring it back up. DON’T! That’ll bring back the ad. Just start a new sessions and head back to your browsing!
