I recently started switching my computer to the more user-friendly Windows XP operating system. Microsoft’s definition of more user friendly is they just never tell you when things are messing up. One of the strangest quirks I have come across is that, in a default installation, your computer is actually configured to reboot when it has a problem. Now I understand the logic behind this.
In the days before XP, I will refer to as BXP, when your computer was asked to do something it did not want to do, it would tell you by displaying a solid blue screen with white letters giving cryptic codes and phrases.
Those of us in the business referred to this as the "Blue Screen of Death." You see it in Microsoft technical articles as BSOD. This usually meant that you had lost hours of work and were relegated to starting your project over at the last point it was saved. In other words, you started all over again because no one saves anything until they are finished.
The good thing about a BSOD was that it really did give you some indication of where a problem might exist, sort of a nudge in the right direction. And if you ever wanted your computer to act right again after the BSOD, you restarted the computer.
Well now enter a more user-friendly Microsoft with the new Windows XP that never gives you the "Blue Screen of Death." On the surface, that seems great. In fact, I have had XP installed on my computer for over a month and have never seen a Blue Screen.
But I did notice a quirky little thing happening from time to time. For no apparent reason, my computer would reboot. Most of the time it occurred whenever I left a program, but sometimes it would happen while I was in the middle of something. So I did some reading and poking around and I figured out how they fixed the "Blue Screen of Death" problem. Now whenever you get a BSOD, you do not get to see it. You do not get the helpful codes; you do not get the diagnostic information to try to repair your computer. Instead, you just get a reboot: A cold hard lack of information reboot! And, of course, a nice note from Microsoft, on restart, asking if you would like to send them an error report on the problem.
I wonder where those things actually go. Anyway, I did find a way to turn this off, so things go back to giving you information so that your computer may one day be fixed. Now these instructions are for users of the Windows XP operating system. If you bought a new computer in the last few months or got one for Christmas, you more than likely have this operating system.
Click on Start, click on Control Panel. Double-click on System. This should bring you up to a System Properties window. Now click on Advanced. Then click on the Settings button under the Startup and Recovery section. Under System failure, you will see a check mark in a box next to Automatically Restart. Click on that so that the check mark is gone. Then click on OK. Then click on OK again. You will more than likely have to reboot to make the changes effective. However, this will get your computer to the point of giving you error messages instead of just rebooting. I have no idea why this occurs, but since I did this, my computer no longer reboots or gives me errors. I am sure one day, it will happen again.
