1. Disabling the System Debugger

Get the inside track on all the hot news regarding DeskShare products, new releases, special promotions and discounts.

Subscribe to our DeskShare News.

General

Disabling the System Debugger

A debugger is built into your Windows operating system. It is designed to find problems with software programs. DeskShare products require you to disable the debugger, to successfully run the applications. This article will explain how to disable the system debugger.

A boot sequence is the set of operations the computer performs when it is switched on, which will load an operating system. Windows XP, Windows 98 as well as Windows 2000 loads boot information from a file called BOOT.INI. If your BOOT.INI contains a switch that reads "/DEBUG", your computer will load in debug mode, even if you do not have an external connection to a debugger set up. Some applications cannot be used with the debugger switched on. Hence it is necessary in such a situation to disable the debugger. BOOT.INI is a Windows XP system file and by default it is hidden. Ensure that your system is set to show all files and folders, so that you can view BOOT.INI.

To view BOOT.INI:

1. Open your My Computerscreen.
2. Click the Tools menu and choose Folder Options.
3. Click on the View tab, and look through the items in the Advanced Settings box.
4. You should see a listing called as Hidden Files and Folders; make sure that is set to Show Hidden Files and Folders.
5. Below that you should see a checkbox called Hide Extensions for Known File Types.
6. Below that you should see a checkbox called Hide Protected Operating System Files (Recommended). If it is checked, uncheck it. This should pop up a dialog box asking you to assure this is what you want to do. Click Yes.
7. Click the Apply button to set the changes, and then click OK to close the Folder Options window.
8. Double-click on the icon for your C:\ drive and you should see Boot.INI there.

Procedure to disable the system debugger:

You can open BOOT.INI in any text editor (like WordPad or NotePad) and simply delete the portion that says "/DEBUG". You may also have other items like "/DEBUGPORT=..." and "/BAUDRATE=..." which can be deleted.

A typical BOOT.INI should look something like this (if your computer manufacturer has installed Windows XP for you, the BOOT.INI might have additional information that he must have added intentionally):

[boot loader]
timeout = 30
default = multi (0) disk (0) rdisk (0) partition (1)\WINDOWS

[operating systems]
multi (0) disk (0) rdisk (0) partition (1)\WINDOWS = "Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

The last line (ending with "/fastdetect") usually contains the "/DEBUG" switch. If you remove everything on that line that comes after the "/fastdetect", save the file and then reboot your computer. This should take your operating system out of the debug mode and the desired application should run correctly.