The Network Connections folder is empty. (Error 1084: This service cannot be started in Safe Mode)

Operating System: Windows XP
Symptom: The Network Connections folder is empty.

Resolution 1: Try to start the "Network connections" service, from computer management. If the service successfully starts, then you 'll be able to see the network connections in Network Connections folder.

Resolution 2: When you try to start the "Network Connections" service or any other service, you receive the following error:

"Windows could not start this service on Local Computer. Error 1084: This service cannot be started in Safe Mode "

This error can occur if the computer has a value enabled in the registry, which causes the operating system to operate as if it was in Safe Mode.

Please use the following steps to resolve this issue.

   1. Click the Windows Start button, and then click Run. The Run dialog box appears.
   2. Type regedit into the Open field, and then click OK. The Windows Registry Editor launches.
   3. Navigate to the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\SafeBoot.
   4. There should be two subkeys, 'Minimal' and 'Network'. If there is a third subkey, 'Option', delete the entire ‘Option’ subkey.
   5. Restart the computer. The "Network connections" service (or any other service) should now be able to start successfully.

DHCP and Static IP Address settings in registry

If you ever want to find you IP Address settings from registry, then follow the above procedure:

1. Go to Start > Run and type regedit
2. In Windows registry editor, navigate to the following path: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces



There as you can see, every network interface on your workstation has a unique Interface name,  ex: {0DEA7AE1-39EF-4483-8C56-F6AE17961A14}

If you select one of the interfaces you can view these keys :

DhcpIPAddress : This key holds the automatically provided IP Address from a DHCP server to your workstation. ex: 192.168.0.10

DhcpSubnetMask: This key holds the Subnet mask for the IP Address, automatically provided by the DHCP server. ex: 255.255.255.0

DhcpDefaultGateway: This key holds the Gateway address automatically provided by the DHCP server. ex: 192.168.0.1

DhcpServer: This key holds the IP Address of your network DHCP Server ex: 192.168.0.1

DhcpNameServer: This key holds the IP Address of you network name server (DNS), automatically provided by the DHCP server. ex: 192.168.0.100

IPAddress: This key holds the Static IP Address defined by you or by a network administrator in the workstation.  ex. 192.168.0.20

 SubnetMask: This key holds the Subnet mask  for the IP Address, defined by you or by a network administrator in the workstation. ex: 255.255.255.0

DefaultGateway: This holds the IP Address of the Default Gateway for the network. ex. 192.168.0.1

NameServer: (DNS): This key holds the IP Address of you network name server

Unkhown Publisher warning message after SP2

After Windows XP Service Pack 2 installation and whenever you are going to run an application, this security warning message appears in your screen:

 "Unknown Publisher - The publisher could not be Verified. Are you sure you want to run this software?" and you have to choose the "Yes" or "No" option to allow or not, the program execution.

Note: Keep in mind that if you disable this security warning, following the steps below you open a security hole on your computer, because every program with the excluded extension can run on your computer without your permission (e.g. virus, Trojans, etc.)

Windows XP Security Tips

In our days all of us, we use a computer in a small network connected to internet, in our home or in a biggest network in our job for work, information or just entertainment.

However, over time the security risks are increasing but a lot of simple users or small companies, they don't know how to protect themselves from viruses, internet computers attacks, or data abstractions.

At this post, i 'll try to give some personal advices, for your own protection in Windows XP environment , from my experience until today.

1. First of all choose the Windows XP Professional Edition instantly Windows XP Home Edition, for operating system in your computer.

And this, because unfortunately Windows XP Home Edition, doesn't have all of the security features of Windows XP Professional Edition.

2. Use a strong password for each user account you have at your computer. A big security risk at Windows XP installation, is that Administrator account already exists but has a blank password. If a little expert user tries to log on in your machine using this account in safe or normal mode, then he will have full access in your data and in all of your computer settings and information.

Enable Administrator account in Windows

When you install Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7, windows asks you to create a user account. When you try to create an account with the user name "Administrator", Windows tell you that you can't do this, because this account already exists by default but is disabled.
At this point you can create, an account with a different user name than "Administrator" and when you log on in Windows, you want to enable the built in "Administrator" account.
Following the below process you can do this.

Windows XP activation backup

The problem:
You have an already activated Windows XP installation on your computer and you want to format your drive and reinstall Windows XP, but you don't have the serial number of your Windows XP install disk or you don't want to waste time to reactivate Windows after the format.
With this procedure, you can easily backup and restore the Windows activation
(As long as you didn't make any hardware changes on your machine)

Solution:
The first step is, to backup your activation files:
1. Open Windows explorer and navigate to C:\Windows\System32
2. Copy the files Wpa.dbl and Wpa.bak to another media such a flash disk or another hard drive, like an external one.

How to easily diagnose network errors.

In a Windows XP/2003/Vista/2008 machine you may experience network problems.
A simple but useful tip, to view the network errors and packets lost, is to enable the status of send/receive packets errors, on to your network card.
After you enable this, you can easily view the status of your network card, by double clicking the "Local area connection" icon, from Control Panel > Network connections".