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Tech Tip: Troubleshoot startup problems with Bootlog

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Takeaway:

Windows 98 provides many tools to help troubleshoot startup problems. One of these is the Bootlog.txt file. This text file logs all the startup actions of Windows, along with a note of their success or failure.

To create the log, press [Ctrl] or [F8] at the Windows startup message to bring up the Startup menu, and select Logged (it's usually the second menu option). Windows will start in normal mode, but it also creates a text file in the root of the Windows drive called Bootlog.txt.

The Bootlog.txt file logs each attempted driver load. Here's an example that shows both a success and a failure.

[00021F22] Loading Vxd = ndis.vxd
[00021F22] LoadSuccess = ndis.vxd
[00021F22] Loading Vxd = ndis2sup.vxd
[00021F35] LoadFailed = ndis2sup.vxd

This allows you to see the network components of Windows that aren't loading correctly, which helps you iron out system problems.

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