[SOLVED] msconfig insanity please help

[Nobody-Important]

I was trying to diagnose a minor but persistently annoying bug my system has, and as a result i disabled services individually to see which caused the issue.
When i disabled the store related services i thought nothing of it, since the description just said that the store apps might not work.

Never in my LIFE would i have thought that the PIN login screen was a store app.

Now the "something happened and your pin isn't available" message is shown, with no option to enter the password instead.

I tried booting into safe mode thinking that there was no way in HELL that the SAFE mode would utilize a store app for login, but it does indeed do that, and so i am completely unable to login to safemode.

The only thing i DID manage to get into with my admin password was the command prompt, where following some guides to reset msconfig i executed the bcdedit d:\windows command, and it completed successfully, making me think that the boot record and settings had been remade.

Not so.
The store app for the PIN thing still doesn't load, but now all the other boot options don't appear any more either.

My main question is what an absolute insane lunatic designed the login system to be an app you can disable, and the boot record repair tool to wipe the recovery options.

But my secondary question is what i'm supposed to do now.

I have my password, i have my pin, i have my windows drive basically unchanged and unharmed, but i can't access it.

 

[Nobody-Important]

Update: Manually causing a boot error got me into the recovery environment again, even though it is now missing from the shift+restart menu.
I am trying a system restore to a state from a few days ago to see if that might fix the damn boot options.

 

[Nobody-Important]

That last thing worked, but only because i had a good restore point.
For the future... without a restore point, is there any sort of way to modify the msconfig settings from the command prompt? Or to log into safemode using a password?
Or to boot into an actually safe mode, where critical windows services aren't stopped?


Additionally thanks to the BCDedit fiasko the advanced recovery options are still missing from the shift+restart menu. Is there any way to get them back?

On the plus side, SOMEhow the system restore fixed the minor bug.

 

[DSzymborski]

What is the exact service you disabled?

 

[Nobody-Important]

AppX Deployment Service (AppXSVC) and Client License Service (ClipSVC)

 

[Nobody-Important]

So is there no answer how to get critical services back without a restore? Or how to get the restore options back?

 

[USAFRet]

So is there no answer how to get critical services back without a restore? Or how to get the restore options back?

Yes...from the actual backups you made before you did this.
Not 'restore' from within Windows.

However, I sense that may not exist.

 

[Nobody-Important]

Yes...from the actual backups you made before you did this.
Not 'restore' from within Windows.

However, I sense that may not exist.

What backups? Where is the info what should appear in the shift+restart menu stored?
Isn't that the MBR? No i did not back up my MBR.....
Also how would i restore the services from a backup? Are they stored in the registry? They must be. But how do i restore the registry without access to a windows environment?

Yeah backups are good and all, but i don't think that answers anything in my case.

 

[USAFRet]

What backups? Where is the info what should appear in the shift+restart menu stored?
Isn't that the MBR? No i did not back up my MBR.....
Also how would i restore the services from a backup? Are they stored in the registry? They must be. But how do i restore the registry without access to a windows environment?

Yeah backups are good and all, but i don't think that answers anything in my case.

When i disabled the store related services

A real full drive backup would bring back the whole thing, to the time and date you made that full drive backup.
Not a System Restore within Windows, but rather some 3rd party tool. I use Macrium Reflect for this.

'MBR' is not the backup.

Messing with system level things like the Registry or msconfig can result in a completely broken system.
Thisis "fixed" by creating a full drive backup before you start, and when things go bad, restoring that backup.

 

[Nobody-Important]

A real full drive backup would bring back the whole thing, to the time and date you made that full drive backup.
Not a System Restore within Windows, but rather some 3rd party tool. I use Macrium Reflect for this.

'MBR' is not the backup.

Messing with system level things like the Registry or msconfig can result in a completely broken system.
Thisis "fixed" by creating a full drive backup before you start, and when things go bad, restoring that backup.

a) doing a full drive backup would have been a lot LOT more effort than restoring to a prior restore point
b) i don't have that sort of storage available
c) i can't do a full drive backup every single day, and without that chances are that i would've lost some data whereas this way i did not lose data only system settings
d) this isn't what i asked. i asked specifically how i can bring back the shift+restart menu, or how to restore the startup services without access to any sort of external system

 

[gardenman]

You should always do a full backup BEFORE making any changes to your services. You are tampering with the system when you do that. You could render it unbootable (and I'm guessing you know this by now). I'm sure you don't enable/disable services every day. So backup before trying anything that may harm your system. A restore point may or may not help when you get yourself in trouble. They are less reliable. If you don't have the space for a backup, a external drive is easy to obtain and use. You can't place the blame of not having backups (or space for them) on anyone but yourself.

There is a command prompt command called SC that lets you add/modify/delete services. I have not tested the idea, but you might be able to run it from a Win10 boot disc under Repair / Troubleshoot / Command Prompt.

For more info, open Command Prompt and type:
sc create /?

Also see the 2nd or so answer here:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8164859/install-a-windows-service-using-a-windows-command-prompt

Another example:
http://dotnetlearners.com/windowsse...ervice-using-sc-exe-in-windows-command-prompt

If needed, on another PC, you could run Services.msc to look a the command line (Path to executable). For example, the command line for the AppXSvc is:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe -k wsappx -p

You can also add/delete/modify the registry from the command prompt. This would go into even more detail and difficulty. Type REG /? at the command prompt.

I question whether or not any of this will work from a boot disc (outside of Windows itself). I have not tested any of it. I could test it later but I don't have much incentive to do so. It could take a few hours of my time.

 

[USAFRet]

a) doing a full drive backup would have been a lot LOT more effort than restoring to a prior restore point
b) i don't have that sort of storage available
c) i can't do a full drive backup every single day, and without that chances are that i would've lost some data whereas this way i did not lose data only system settings
d) this isn't what i asked. i asked specifically how i can bring back the shift+restart menu, or how to restore the startup services without access to any sort of external system

1. Free software, a few clicks, wait 30 minutes. Done. Restore Points within Windows are la poor substitute. Especially if you can't get into the system to invoke it.
2. Drive space has never been cheaper
3. Automation is your friend. All my house systems get some sort of backup daily, every other day, or weekly. All hands off. Once set up, I have to do nothing
4. I know it is not what you asked. But, the system seems to be terminally broken at this point. Unfixable, in its current state.

Sometimes things can get so borked up they cannot be fixed in place.

Operating a PC without some sort of backup routine is like driving without car insurance.
Making potentially fatal mods to the system (Registry/msconfig) is like speeding with no license and no insurance.

 

[Nobody-Important]

snip

No, i literally don't have the money to have an external drive for a full backup. And i didn't delete services, i just disabled them from starting. That should have been exactly what safemode and recovery mode were for restoring. Making a full backup would be incredibly difficult and restoring it would have been even more difficult.
I don't even have a win10 boot disk. It's all already supposed to be on the drive itself.

I never in my life would have imagined that i was messing with any vital services. Otherwise i would not even have attempted it.

Thank you for the command line suggestion.
I really don't know if that would work, because the issue is that the command line opens in a separate enviroonment. I tried starting services.msc, but it didn't exist under the X:\windows\system32 folder

Hence why i asked about offline modification of the registry.... if maybe the startup services are stored in there.

 

[Nobody-Important]

1. Free software, a few clicks, wait 30 minutes. Done. Restore Points within Windows are la poor substitute. Especially if you can't get into the system to invoke it.
2. Drive space has never been cheaper
3. Automation is your friend. All my house systems get some sort of backup daily, every other day, or weekly. All hands off. Once set up, I have to do nothing
4. I know it is not what you asked. But, the system seems to be terminally broken at this point. Unfixable, in its current state.

Sometimes things can get so borked up they cannot be fixed in place.

Operating a PC without some sort of backup routine is like driving without car insurance.
Making potentially fatal mods to the system (Registry/msconfig) is like speeding with no license and no insurance.

1: That's about 29 minutes more than i intended to spend on the whole process of disabling and reenabling services, since i had no indication that these were vital services.
2: That is still too expensive for me lol. I literally can not get more storage space.
3: Last i checked i haven't found any programs that do that for free.
4: Read my second post. The system restore fixed everything. If not manually reenabling the services on a completely intact installation of windows can't be that much more difficult than literally wiping the whole thing and restoring everything.
I can theoretically extract windows passwords from an offline installation of windows, so why wouldn't i be able to simply enable a service.

 

[USAFRet]

#3 - Macrium Reflect. The Free version does exactly this.

 

[Bob.B]

1: That's about 29 minutes more than i intended to spend on the whole process of disabling and reenabling services, since i had no indication that these were vital services.
2: That is still too expensive for me lol. I literally can not get more storage space.
3: Last i checked i haven't found any programs that do that for free.
4: Read my second post. The system restore fixed everything. If not manually reenabling the services on a completely intact installation of windows can't be that much more difficult than literally wiping the whole thing and restoring everything.
I can theoretically extract windows passwords from an offline installation of windows, so why wouldn't i be able to simply enable a service.

It's your call how you want to run the machine.

Considering how easy it is to trash up one of these machines having some method to put things back together again is a must have item.

Even if it means going all the way back to ground zero.....a fresh windows install.

 

[Nobody-Important]

Even if it means going all the way back to ground zero.....a fresh windows install.

A fresh windows install can be made from the recovery menu. That much should always remain intact as it is stored outside of the usually used windows files.

 

[Bob.B]

A fresh windows install can be made from the recovery menu. That much should always remain intact as it is stored outside of the usually used windows files.

Take it to the bank.
I hope it does not come back to bite you in the butt.

 

[DSzymborski]

A fresh windows install can be made from the recovery menu. That much should always remain intact as it is stored outside of the usually used windows files.

No, it can't. A proper, full Windows install means wiping the drive, which means anything inside is also wiped. You're in this position because you didn't do things the right way; the remedy isn't doing more things the wrong way.

 

[Nobody-Important]

Windows offers to reinstall windows from that menu. What Windows says is the right way. I do not want to break any warranty.

 

[USAFRet]

Windows offers to reinstall windows from that menu. What Windows says is the right way. I do not want to break any warranty.

There is no warranty issue with that.
That is also not a full reinstall.

But, you started this thread 8 days ago.
A real reinstall would have been completed 7 days ago.
Recovery from a full drive backup would have been completed within an hour.

 

[DSzymborski]

Windows offers to reinstall windows from that menu. What Windows says is the right way. I do not want to break any warranty.

This isn't how any of this works. It's an option. It's not a good one in your situation. And none of this has anything to do with warranties.

As you don't seem all that interested in repairing the problem, I'm out of advice to give you, so I wish you the best of luck in resolving your issues.