Several times now my Win XP Pro system has got a corrupted registry
that caused it to not boot, or to hang while booting the OS.
Supposedly Win XP has a "Recovery Console" that you can boot into when
this happens, and I'm under the impression this is supposed to let you
use the "revert to last known good settings" feature of XP. But if you
boot into the RC (it's presented as an alternative OS at startup) all
you get is a C: prompt, and typing help gets a list of DOS-like
commands you can use. There seems to be no opportunity to "revert to
last known good settings." This has happened to me twice in the past
year and I ultimately had to reinstall the OS, losing all the
installed apps and a lot of data such as Outlook inbox & sent mail,
all OS preferences and settings, etc.

My question is, how do you "revert to last known good settings" using
RC when your system will not boot into XP Pro?

Hi there!

I'm a fellow XP user (among other operating systems), and I've had
some boot-up misery recently too. Unfortunately, the fact is that you
cannot boot with the Last Known Good Configuration while using the
recovery console. This is because the recovery console is a small part
of XP, which can not lead on to a full boot by itself.

Never fear - the Last Known Good Configuration option is certainly
available another way, though. If you press the F8 key repeatedly
while the computer is turning itself on, XP will present you with a
menu letting you select this, and other options. While you're pressing
the F8 key, don't worry if your computer beeps a few times at you.
This is to be expected.

See here for a screenshot of what should appear:

http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm#How%20to%20access%20Last%20Known%20Good%20Configuration:

You can try this the next time you start XP, and once you've verified
that it works, you can just select "Start Windows Normally".

If you find that the computer can't even get as far as this menu, then
you're right: the recovery console is the place to go.

Once you reach it (you seem to have done this already, but if you need
further information, please ask!) simply type the two commands written
below:

FIXMBR
FIXBOOT

You will receive warnings about how these commands could damage data,
but it should be safe to do these. Once you have executed both of
these, you should at least be able to see the menu I mentioned
previously.

I hope this helps! If anything's unclear, or you need further details
on these procedures, please feel free to request clarification before
rating this answer!

Thanks,

--seizer-ga

Search strategy:
xp "last known good"