msconfig
 

When I type msconfig in run I get msconfig is not a valid win32 application. What's wrong?

what OS?

Sorry I forgot to tell you up-front, I'm using XP.

home or pro :rolleyes:

XP home version.

i dunno much about home ed. but from what i've seen from a quick google, you can try running it in safe mode under an admin acct.

(of course search your c:\windows for the excecutable first)

It's alive and well in XP Pro. You probably have to run it with an account that has administrator rights.

I run XP home edition and msconfig works fine, I use it fairly often.

I run it under an Administrator account, but I don't know if that's neccesary. But it's at least there.

I thought XP didn't have the msconfig command, wow good to know!

msconfig is a win9x program they do not have it in win2k/xp

what do you need it for?

Ditto, though I could be wrong.

Unless I have some super special edition of XP....

Start->Run->msconfig, and up pops 'System Configuration Utility'. I'm running WinXP Home Edition on a brand new laptop, not upgraded from a previous version of Windows or anything. I've used it and tweaked it numerous times in XP, it does exactly what it should.

it's not on win2k, but it was brought back in XP.

Anyone know the equivelent for Win2k? Without having to download a third-party piece of software?

ah they put it back in xp? ok then i have 2k and im not going to xp

Regedit :D

oops realized this was a response to Mr Defloks question, not Brewmaniacs

http://greenstuff.decoder.com.au/msconfig2k.htm

I want to use the 'System Configuration Utility' Moskie is talking about. I'd like to control what is running.
I have eleminated the sign on screen and should be the adm. since I'm the only user.

my msconfig.exe is at
C:\WINDOWS\PCHealth\HelpCtr\Binaries\msconfig.exe
its
142 KB (145,408 bytes)
and version
5.1.2600.1106


yours might have been corrupted either pull it off the windows XP cd or see if you have a C:\windows\i386\msconfig.ex_ and use extract to get it out.

that link i posted may have the latest one too.

charlie

hmm have you tried searching for it under search? in Win2k that was the only way of finding it. You couldn't bring up msconfig through the run command but after searching for it in your X:/Windows folder you might find the executable. From there it's easy you'll be able to click on it and see if it is corrupted or not. I'm running XP Pro right now and you are able to get msconfig by simply typing it in the run command just as you would in Win 9x and Me, haven't tried it in XP Home, but I'm pretty sure it should work.
But hope isn't over yet...
Have you updated to the most recent update?
If you're registered you'd be able to get an automatic update, the reason i say this is because i just did a search on it and found msconfig in the following directory
C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386
so yeah, you need to update XP, try it and let us know.
Oh, one more thing you can probably try to copy the .exe file from another computer with the same OS ofcourse, not sure if any other version of OS would work, but try that and maybe you'll be able to access the configuration system. (that's if you're unable to update, be it that you might have a pirated version or something)
let us know :) :thumbsup:

Haha, I only mess with the Registry if I really need to :)

Thanks for that dude!!!

dont play with the registry unless you know what you are doing

For Win2k if you want msconfig you have to download the msconfig.exe from a xp machine and put it in your c:\windows\system32 folder and when you do that you can just type msconfig in run and it will work just like it does in 98 and XP

Dilbert, I know nothing about registry so I'll leave that alone. Is there any other way to manage what's running?

Here's a screen shot of my search results, It shows msconfig.exe but I am hesitant to mess with it without good direction.


http://www.strike9.com/file.ashx?pat...2fmsconfig.jpg


Thanks all for your suggestions!

yes, you can use the services management console.

i found a site with hopefully helpful info yesterday when i was googling on this ...

(which of course i wonder if you tried google yet... :rolleyes: )

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

obviously, make sure you know what a service does before disabling it.

and let us know what you've tried already.

Hey SiN, thanks for the BV link I didn't think of it. Most of what I found using google was over my head. I will go through BV and see what I can figure out.

i see what your problem is.

go to start / run menu
type

cmd (then press enter)

when the cmd prompt opens (likely c:\windows) type this exactly

del c:\windows\system32\msconfig.exe
exit (making sure it did delete it)

be very careful to type exactly that and nothing else, it should allow you to delete that file, if not boot into safe mode and do it from there.

Or browse to c:\windows\system32\ and delete the msconfig.exe file, that'll probably be a lot easier and safer ;)

Hey Charliex, what will deleting the msconfig.exe do? Then what do I do?

nothing, just delete it, its a rogue file thats probably left over from another install, its also completely useless since its 0 bytes, hence the corrupt exe warning, whats happening is, that instead of running the correct one in the health directory, its attempting to run the corrupted one, deleting it will allow windows to get to the correct one.

http://www.mlin.net/files/StartupCPL.zip

this little program will do wht you want, it looks at all the places that files start up and list them out in an easy to view setting

after you instal it, it will be in your control panel under startup

Hey Charlie, it worked! Thanks guys for all your help & patience.