Windows XP "Master Reset"??????

I just got off the phone with a guy who asked me if I knew what the Windows XP keystroke was for a "master reset". I said "master reset? What exactly do you mean by 'master reset'?". He said "there's a keystroke or a repeated keystroke that will wipe the PC back to original day one spec.". And I said "I don't think so; sounds a bit dangerous to me. I can't imagine Microsoft would build something into XP that would just wipe everything out and do a clean install with a mere keystroke". He said "well I guess you don't do much programming and haven't worked with PCs much". And I said "I've been working with computers since the days of the VIC20, c64, Apple ][+ (about 1983; probably before this kid was even born!) and I'm A+ certified as a bench technician, and I have never even heard of this 'master reset'. You'd think that if it existed I would have at least heard of it." He said "It's like ALT+F11+ALT+F11 or something. Maybe one day you'll know enough to answer my question" and he hung up. So, who's the stooge?

 

you know that somewhere someone is right now at their keyboard pressing that key just to see if it works.

 

Hmmm, what a shocker. No "Master Reset" listed.

Keyboard shortcuts for Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/126449

 

Yep.there is a "master reset" in xp.IN HIS BRAIN!!!!:-Droflmao:celebrate:neener
Hey,Dagonet WELCOME to MG!!!!!!

 

I'm guessing what he was talking about is pressing a F key (F11 I think) during boot that boots off of the recovery partition that are on many preinstalled systems. I have never dealt with that so don't know for sure.

If that's what he meant, he needs to learn a bit more before downing others.

 

Maybe not in Windows, but I know there are some software solutions(pretty sure I've heard of them here) that allow you to 'set a point' and at the end of the day, or whatever, you can reset to that point by rebooting or whatever. I guess similar in purpose to a restore point, but it 'resets' everything, files, folders, all, basically like mirroring it from a backup. Only it's meant to be easy to do over and over to the same point. For example on a publicly accessible computer, or from demo computers at stores, so that you can easily undo/fix anything that the people who use them mess up, and also help keep personal information off of them that some users may have inadvertently left. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about better than me, I only vaguely remember, but what you were talking about reminded me of it. Maybe he had heard of some software like that, that you could use a keyboard shortcut to 'reset' and mistakenly thought it was a part of Windows?

 

If you go into public building in the EU and use one of the free people's network pcs you will note that it is 'reset' at the end of your session, i.e. between users.

And you don't even need a single keystroke to do this.

Of course this is to do with the way Windows and the pc is configured from the outset and not any special function built into other Windows.

DLB if you worked with early Commodores etc you will know they actually could be reset simply by switching off and on again.

I firmly believe this would be a better solution for most users, who never change their configuration from shop to skip.

 

Hello everyone can someone help with with this idea of resetting the computer each time you shut it down like my tech school had their computers set up I would appreciate it, They were xp sp2 computers by dell I never used them I always had my own in class but I do know that they set them up like this so the students could bug them or put viruses on them and make then junk by the end of the day. Thanks

 

Most schools use a program called deepfreeze for that type of lab application.

 

There is this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307852/en-us

 

Yeah, deepfreeze is what I was thinking about.

Other than running a recovery(which is not something built into Windows, obviously... and is always on a separate partition, drive or disk) there isn't much out there that will do something like he's talking about.

There isn't anything that comes with Windows by default that will do that automatically... Maybe if you had two partitions and you did a backup immediately after getting the system up and running for the first time, MAYBE then, it would be similar, but unless you created keyboard shortcuts to the restore utility there'd be none.

So, basically, no, there's nothing built into Windows by default that I've ever heard of or seen that does anything like he's talking about by default or automatically.

 

I install deep freeze in couple of hundreds computers( mostly internet cafe's or in home networks),and all I can say is NO PROBLEMO.You can't mess up the comp(if you are begginer),they can't mess up the comp(viruses,spywares,malwares).Great software in two words.

 

Maybe he is referring to regreswiz on the Ultimate Boot CD 4

 

thanks to all who replied I want to try these ideas and see how they work it is a good way to learn I'm thinking, that is how I got into building engines and racing etc. plus try other things on the comp thanks to all Ill try to see what I like the best. Anything else will be liked also.

 

u go into command prompt and type in format/autotest/'drive' and the format begins without prompt. thats the closest i can think of

 

Very true, the Apple ][ was the same way, most of the early PCs were this way 'cuz they didn't have hard drives. With the early PCs, you didn't "install" applications or games or anything. All programs for the Apple required booting to the floppy disk to run the program; this included games, word processors, even DOS required booting to a floppy disk so you could program in Applesoft BASIC. The Commodore's were similar: when powered on they went straight to a BASIC prompt; to run a game or application, you had to type a command to access the floppy drive. IIRC it was LOAD "program_name",8,1. But this is different from what this guy was talking about. He was trying to tell me that you could simply press a combination of keys from within Windows and it would return the PC to a fresh install state without having to reload from a CD. The way Deep Freeze works is pretty much what he was talking about, but he never mentioned any other software other than Windows, and he implied that it was a 'secret reset' built in to Windows XP, and that if I didn't know about it, I obviously didn't know sh*t. Well, he didn't know it either. And that's because such a thing doesn't exist. There are no more 'secrets' like that these days with the internet; no sacred code like magicians have. Knowledge is everywhere, and if this 'secret reset' was a real thing, it wouldn't be a secret very long.

 

Actually I think it was a fishing expedition, like that thread a while back on the 'Master Password'

The poster hopes there is such a secret (it would be very useful) and that some tech will let the knowledge slip.

 

Aah Studiot ye of great knowledge,I was reading the posts and although i am not a techi i got the distinct impression that the guy on the phone was looking to put a PC back where it was before he started messing with it.http://www.clipartof.com/images/emoticons/xsmall2/771_smiley_being_punched_through_his_computer_monitor.gif

 

Wait a second, I have read that post. I'm thinking the poster may have short term memory loss. Let's not judge so quickly...lol