Windows xp file system check disable

In the case of new hardware, chances are that the accompanying installation guide instructed you to click the Continue Anyway button with the assurance that the functionality of the driver is sound and that the warning can safely be ignored.

Because you need or really want to use the hardware, you go ahead and click the button. In many cases, an unsigned driver seems to work fine, so you go about our business and eventually forget all about the fact that the driver was unsigned.

But what happens to the functionality of an unsigned driver over time as you add other hardware and drivers to the system or update the operating system? Will an unsigned driver continue to play nice or will it be the instigator of strange problems or crashes? When it comes to device drivers, Windows XP has two built in settings that are designed to ensure signed drivers are used in the system.

First, when you begin a driver installation procedure, Windows XP will by default check to see if the driver has been signed. Second, when you connect a new device to your system without first installing the drivers, Windows XP is configured to prompt you to allow the operating system to check the Windows Update site for a signed driver.

You can alter or investigate these settings on the Hardware tab of the System Properties dialog box. To do so, press [Windows]-Break to display the System Properties dialog box and then select the Hardware tab.

When you click the Driver Signing button, you'll see the Driver Signing Options dialog box, which provides you with three levels of digital signature verification, as shown in Figure D.

As you can see, the default setting is to warn you when an unsigned driver is detected. This is the setting that will generate the Hardware Installation dialog box shown earlier in Figure B. As you can see, you can either lower or raise the digital signature verification level. When you do so, rather than a dialog box like the one shown in Figure B, you'll see a Hardware Installation dialog box like the one shown in Figure E, anytime you attempt to install a device with an unsigned driver.

As you can see, the available settings allow you to select one of three levels of control over how the operating system is to access the Windows Update site when looking for signed drivers. The default setting is to prompt you to search the Windows Update site for a signed driver. However, if you really want to enforce the policy, you can select the first option in order to make Windows XP immediately go to the Windows Update site.

Now that you have a good idea of how Windows XP's driver signing features work and how they can be configured, let's take a look at how you can use the File Signature Verification Utility, as shown in Figure G, to troubleshoot driver problems.

However, you can launch the utility much quicker from the Run command. In order to configure the Signature Verification Utility to track down unsigned drivers, click the Advanced button. This article shows how to reverse this process. Microsoft recommends that before you ever edit the Registry, you always attempt to back up the Registry and understand how to restore it if a problem occurs.

In the Links and References section you will find an article that covers how to quickly back up the Registry so that if a mistake is made, you can at least have a backup of your system. Windows XP has the ability to protect itself from crashing from system instability infamously caused by third party software overwriting important system files.

Once overwritten, the system can become unstable and crash. Windows File Protection is always enabled by default. Get new features first. Was this information helpful? Yes No. Thank you! Any more feedback? The more you tell us the more we can help.

Can you help us improve? Resolved my issue. Protected file types include those with. You must be logged on as an administrator or as a member of the Administrators group to be allowed to run System File Checker. Just copy the whole folder to your hard drive. Note that it'll take some MB in size, but with today's large hard drives this shouldn't be a problem.