easiest way to achieve the BSOD upon reboot?

[Guest sobriquet]

Hi.

 

Using a screen recorder and virtualization software, I'm making a

video tutorial demonstrating the virtues of running a virtual machine

and for this purpose I intentionally want to mess up an xp

installation to demonstrate how easy it is to recover from a

disastrous situation (like a Blue Screen Of Death when you reboot) by

reverting to a snapshot prepared in advance.

One method to achieve this, is to go to C:\windows\system32 (assuming

windows is installed in C:\windows),

and simply delete as many files as you can in that location.

The problem with this method, is that many files are locked by the

system, so the deletion process aborts every time it encounters a file

that is in use by the system.

If you continue by deselecting the topmost selected file or folder and

pressing <shift>-delete again and confirming the notification that

you're about to delete certain files or folders, you can delete most

of the files in system32 and if you reboot the virtual machine, the

BSOD occurs, as desired. Subsequently, you can simply revert to a

snapshot and within seconds, the xp installation is up and running

again as if nothing ever happened.

 

Does anyone know of any particular crucial file in system32 (or

somewhere else) that is not in use by the system

when you run it in normal mode, but will result in the dreaded BSOD

when you attempt to reboot?

 

Kind regards and thanks in advance for any suggestions, Niek

[Guest John John (MVP)]

Re: easiest way to achieve the BSOD upon reboot?

 

Windows feature lets you generate a memory dump file by using the keyboard

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/244139/

 

John

 

sobriquet wrote:

> Hi.

>

> Using a screen recorder and virtualization software, I'm making a

> video tutorial demonstrating the virtues of running a virtual machine

> and for this purpose I intentionally want to mess up an xp

> installation to demonstrate how easy it is to recover from a

> disastrous situation (like a Blue Screen Of Death when you reboot) by

> reverting to a snapshot prepared in advance.

> One method to achieve this, is to go to C:\windows\system32 (assuming

> windows is installed in C:\windows),

> and simply delete as many files as you can in that location.

> The problem with this method, is that many files are locked by the

> system, so the deletion process aborts every time it encounters a file

> that is in use by the system.

> If you continue by deselecting the topmost selected file or folder and

> pressing <shift>-delete again and confirming the notification that

> you're about to delete certain files or folders, you can delete most

> of the files in system32 and if you reboot the virtual machine, the

> BSOD occurs, as desired. Subsequently, you can simply revert to a

> snapshot and within seconds, the xp installation is up and running

> again as if nothing ever happened.

>

> Does anyone know of any particular crucial file in system32 (or

> somewhere else) that is not in use by the system

> when you run it in normal mode, but will result in the dreaded BSOD

> when you attempt to reboot?

>

> Kind regards and thanks in advance for any suggestions, Niek

[Guest Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Re: easiest way to achieve the BSOD upon reboot?

 

 

"sobriquet" <dohduhdah@yahoo.com> wrote in message

news:53305745-f0c9-4cfa-95c2-3355555fe343@64g2000hsm.googlegroups.com...

>

> Hi.

>

> Using a screen recorder and virtualization software, I'm making a

> video tutorial demonstrating the virtues of running a virtual machine

> and for this purpose I intentionally want to mess up an xp

> installation to demonstrate how easy it is to recover from a

> disastrous situation (like a Blue Screen Of Death when you reboot) by

> reverting to a snapshot prepared in advance.

> One method to achieve this, is to go to C:\windows\system32 (assuming

> windows is installed in C:\windows),

> and simply delete as many files as you can in that location.

> The problem with this method, is that many files are locked by the

> system, so the deletion process aborts every time it encounters a file

> that is in use by the system.

> If you continue by deselecting the topmost selected file or folder and

> pressing <shift>-delete again and confirming the notification that

> you're about to delete certain files or folders, you can delete most

> of the files in system32 and if you reboot the virtual machine, the

> BSOD occurs, as desired. Subsequently, you can simply revert to a

> snapshot and within seconds, the xp installation is up and running

> again as if nothing ever happened.

>

> Does anyone know of any particular crucial file in system32 (or

> somewhere else) that is not in use by the system

> when you run it in normal mode, but will result in the dreaded BSOD

> when you attempt to reboot?

>

> Kind regards and thanks in advance for any suggestions, Niek

 

I read this (untried) recipe some time ago:

[HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\i8042prt\Parameters]

Set "CrashOnCtrlScroll"=dword:00000001

Once you've added this, restart the PC. Test it by holding down the

right-hand Ctrl key and press the scroll lock key twice.