Ok, I really don't know if this can be done but since my friend placed a shortcut to msconfig on my desktop, in a folder marked wth the usual derogative comments about it being "the piece of junk, of the piece of junk by the piece of junk". I for my part would really like to give him the shortcut to "reboot the computer in safemode" and place it on his desktop in return with words that I have yet to think of about how he should use this more often. Anyway, if it can be done let me know please.

so you want something that he will be tricked into clicking....that will restart his machine into safe mode? (not really understanding completely)

Sounds like a most excellent devious trick. Perhaps make it look like his internet browser shortcut.

This post has been edited by warriorscot: Mar 10 2006, 02:34 PM

you could...in theory...if you had access to his boot.ini file to see what it normally says..make a modified version of it

with some of the settings here
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=239780

to where the boot.ini would look similar to


but how to modify his boot.ini safely from a command line...hmmm...still working on it

No, I don't wish to be divious here, actually I appreciate his msconfig shortcut and have it now on a USB key, which was simply the line below in a shortcut folder, simple and rather useless.

C:\WINDOWS\PCHEALTH\HELPCTR\Binaries\msconfig.exe

So with that idea in mind, and because it is so useless (since F8 just before the windows screen on boot up gets you there too) it becomes the perfect useless gift on par with givng someone a pair of yellow socks in the real world then.

I throw this thread open then to any compleatly pointless shortcuts but not those normally on the screen like shortcut to recycle bin which is too lame I feel.

aaahhh...i see you want to give him a completely useless present that actually does something...but something that you would do anyway by a different method...but without being sneakylike

How about a shortcut to your desktop (of course, placed on the desktop)?

make a text file in notepad and enter the text below

now press file > save as > make sure that the file type is "all files" and save the file as "whatTIMEisIT.bat" or something like that..just as long as it ends in .bat... now double click the .bat file on the desktop (or wherever you saved it to)

you should get a command prompt that looks like


when he presses a key...it will close

Yes, rather like those adds you see on television where ones asks oneself "Gosh who on earth would honestly buy one of those". I certainly wouldn't like something sneaky as that is not my style, something stupid, yes I think everyone knows my style by now.

dsenette, I am trying it out and it and if it is what I think it is, that is just great, sure it is safe though and how about turning it back if he asks?

just delete the file...all it's doing is opening up a command promt and displaying the %date% and %time% variables from the system info

also...if you want it to say something to him as well after it displays the time and date

you can add a line before the "pause" that says something like
echo GAME TIME!!!

and it will say


C:\Documents and Settings\dsenette\Desktop>ECHO off
Fri 03/10/2006
04:37 PM
GAME TIME!!!
Press any key to continue . .

Thanks, I will use it, a lot depends on the message line, is it unlimited here?

as far as what you want it to echo? sure...don't know the per line character limit but as long as you start the line with echo...the prompt will print it on the screen so you could do

echo hello
echo there,
echo how
echo are
echo you
echo doing?

and that would print on the screen
hello
there,
how
are
you
doing?

but if there is a per line character limit..it's probably relatively large

I am thinking of "Happy birthday to you" with the rest so it should be OK. Thanks for showing me the ropes here then.