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Remove f8 function Win2k startup

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Hi,

I’d like the ability to remove the f8 function at win2k startup to stop users from entering safe mode etc. In Win95 it was editing the msdos.sys but I can’t find where to do it in Win2k???

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Remove f8 function Win2k startup

In reply to Remove f8 function Win2k startup

You can use the tweakui tool from Microsoft to adjust the boot behavior, including function key availability.

You can also use it to hide items in both My Computer and Control Panel.

The link is http://www.microsoft.com/ntworkstation/downloads/PowerToys/Networking/NTTweakUI.asp

I have not used this version myself, but the features are in the Win 95, 98, and XP versions of tweakui.

Remove f8 function Win2k startup

In reply to Remove f8 function Win2k startup

Have been thru the Win2k Version of tweakui and can not see a fix to the problem. It does not control boot options or function keys.

Remove f8 function Win2k startup

In reply to Remove f8 function Win2k startup

I believe there is no registry tweak or policy modification that would disable the F8 functionality on boot for Win2K.
The only suggestion I have is to replace NTLDR and Ntdetect.com with Windows NT4 versions (SP6a versions, technically).
Here is why: Technet article Q249000 says that if you have a 2000 & NT4 dual boot, and if you installed NT4 AFTER 2000, that the NT4 install overwrites NTLDR and Ntdetect.com
When this happens, the Advanced boot options (with the bar graph and the “Press F8” message appears) are not visible.
So, perhaps if you replace your 2000 versions of these to files (yes, they are important files, so hopefully this won’t screw things up!) with the NT4 versions, the advanced startup options will not be displayed.
If in trying this your 2000 box cannot boot up, you can always boot from the cd, run Recovery Console, and replace the files with the original 2000 versions from the cd.

Give it a shot on a test machine first. Good luck!

Remove f8 function Win2k startup

In reply to Remove f8 function Win2k startup

ok copied ntldr and ntdetect.com from nt4 ws – pc in loop with hardware profile errors as described in q249000.
Hadn’t thought of that one though……………

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