How can I disable F8 on XP boot?

April 20th, 2004, 3:17 pm

Okay. How I can disable key F8 or booting XP in Safe mode?

I urgently need solve this problem.

[grinch2171]

April 21st, 2004, 6:04 am

Please give us some more detail. Why would you need to disable F8, I typically don't press it unless I have to which is rarely. Judging your post I am assuming your PC will only boot into safe mode, is that correct?

April 21st, 2004, 7:23 am

No.
I work at Internet club. And use "Cyber cafe" to control users spend time. If somebody want to use internet or play games it is enough to restart machine and press key F8 to boot system into safe mode or safe mode with command promt. In safe mode users can escape Cyber by yes or cancel (question: because.....do you want to run Cyber? or something like this).

I tried to remap keyboard but unsuccessfully. I can remap any other key but F8 I can not.

April 21st, 2004, 8:08 am

I'm not sure how to disable f8, but it may be worth puttin a BIOS password on there so that it can't get past the BIOS checks on bootup.

In a cybercafe, why would people need to reboot anyways?

A regular user paying to just come in and use the net has no reason to reboot whatsoever unless they're attempting to install some software, or something else you don't want them to do anyways.

So you can go over, enter the password to get past the bios and carry on booting under your supervision - and quiz them about why they needed to reboot anyways.

April 22nd, 2004, 12:57 am

Create a User with a password, in safe mode it will be shown with the Admin account, and in normal it will be shown alone, and in both cases they cant access...

[grinch2171]

April 22nd, 2004, 1:32 am

remove the F8 key from the keyboard.

[ATNO/TW]

April 22nd, 2004, 4:45 pm

You can't remove the F8 -- best solution is the Bios password. And I'm sure that can be overcome as well if anyone is that serious, but will deter most.

//P.S. This is the closest hack I could find on it, but it doesn't describe how to disable it, just how to manage it. Might be a good reference for future viewers who want to manage the NT+ boot process:

http://winguides.com/registry/display.php/1268/

[ATNO/TW]

April 22nd, 2004, 4:56 pm

grinch2171 wrote:

remove the F8 key from the keyboard.

Grinch --all it takes is a pencil to overcome that.

April 22nd, 2004, 5:09 pm

ATNO/TW wrote:

You can't remove the F8 -- best solution is the Bios password. And I'm sure that can be overcome as well if anyone is that serious, but will deter most.

The only wat the bios password can be overcome is by shorting the battery, or hitting the bios reset jumper on the motherboard... Not something that's likely to happen in an internet cafe.. People tend to notice when you're hackin' away at a PC Case with a screwdriver

[ATNO/TW]

April 22nd, 2004, 5:30 pm

Yep, Axe -- that's pretty much what I meant by the ability to overcome it -- and if that's happening, then kick 'em out the front door.

April 26th, 2004, 8:30 pm

While looking for something else relating to the F8 menu, (I was searching for a way to add options to this menu), I discovered what appears to be a solution to the OP's question.

http://www.myriadworld.com/support/faq1.htm

It's under #11.

The 'safe mode' menu is coded into NTLDR , which is found in the root directory. There is a modified NTLDR available for download and instructions on replacing the original. The Modified NTLDR disables the F8 key.

As always, use caution when tampering with critical system files. If you try this, make a backup of the original.

Midhat probably won't be back but maybe this will help someone else out...

Cheers,

[ATNO/TW]

April 26th, 2004, 9:05 pm

Nice find JrzyCrim. I bookmarked that one in a heartbeat.

April 26th, 2004, 9:13 pm

I haven't tested it so I'm not sure if it works. I'm guessing it will.

Originally, I was trying to figure out a way to add the recovery console to the F8 menu. I have it installed on my HD and I wanted to avoid the boot menu at startup. I broke out my hex editor and loaded ntldr. Did a string search for "safe mode" and just as i thought, it's coded into ntldr. I'm not a good enough programmer to modify it myself. Oh well, it's a minor issue.

Cheers,

[ATNO/TW]

April 26th, 2004, 9:26 pm

I'll more than likely check that all soon enough, but in the meantime for the newb's I assumed your acronymn "OP" stood for "Original Poster".

Just wanted to point that out, because there's many here that visit for the first time in a given day.

April 26th, 2004, 9:29 pm

ATNO/TW wrote:

I'll more than likely check that all soon enough, but in the meantime for the newb's I assumed your acronymn "OP" stood for "Original Poster".

Just wanted to point that out, because there's many here that visit fo the first time in a given day.

Sorry, yes. That's what I meant. Old usenet habit...