How to boot computer without a monitor on Windows?

Some graphics cards are not designed to be “headless” and will halt the boot process if no monitor is detected. In those cases, you typically start the computer with a monitor connected, then disconnect the monitor and the computer will (or should) keep running. But do note it is best to power down before connecting the monitor again. While HDMI and DVI are “hot-swappable”, you have to be very careful to align the connectors when inserting so you don’t short any pins while inserting. No worries when the computer is off.

You might also check your BIOS and disable the “Halt on all errors” switch. No guarantee this will work on your computer if it is the card doing the halting, but it is worth a try.

In cases where software does not work, then you need to get dummy plugs:

BUYMINERS.CA 4K HDMI Dummy Plug – Virtual Monitor Display Emulator, Headless Display Adapter Supports up to 3840×2160@60Hz, 1080@120Hz DVI EDID Emulator (Single)

 

How to Boot Without a Monitor

System administrators often run server computers “headless,” or without a monitor or keyboard, to conserve space. By editing the Windows registry, you can set up default booting instructions so that you can simply turn the power on to the computer without having to log on or view what is going on. This way, you can set up a Windows office server you can maintain from another computer, without requiring an attached monitor to boot it up.

1.
Type “regedit.exe” to open the search bar in Windows 8. Click the entry that appears in the result.

2.
Locate and click the “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon” key in the Registry Editing tool.

3.
Double-click the “DefaultUserName” entry then type the username to use for login in the text box, then click “OK.” Repeat the process with the “DefaultPassword” entry, using the password associated with that account.

4.
Locate the “AutoAdminLogon” entry, and change it from a “0” to a “1.”

5.
Close the editor and restart the computer. It will now automatically start and log in. You can remove the monitor from the computer, and start it simply by pressing the power button on the PC.

How to fix broken or corrupted BCD causing Windows 10 to be unable to boot after Windows updates?

Last updated: 20210316

This is application for complex boot ups, using UEFI/EFI instead of MBR (for people who install multiple OSes on a computer)

 

PS: You may have to repeat these after every major Windows update!

 

Hardware requirements:

1 x 16GB and above USB FLASH THUMB disk.

1 other working PC.

 

Software requirements:

Windows 10 installation available online from Microsoft.

        • https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=691209
        • https://www.microsoft.com/software-download/windows10

EasyBCD (optional)

EasyUEFI (optional)

 

Step 1: Create the bootable Windows Installation disk by running the Windows 10 installer from Microsoft website above.

Boot into the USB head to Troubleshoot > Command Prompt

 

In the command prompt that opens, run the disk management tool by typing the command:
diskpart

 

Display the list of drives on the computer:
list disk

 

 

Look for the disks that says “GPT” , EFI partitions are only running on disks using GPT.

 

Select the disk where the EFI is on:
sel disk 0

 

Display the list of partitions and volumes on the disk:
list partition
list volume

 

Assign the EFI partitions to a drive letter we are going to use later:

select volume 1 (example)
assign letter R:

 

If there’s more than 1 EFI, we can load them as well to check

select volume 2 (example)
assign letter S:

 

Close the diskpart:
exit

 

Go to the bootloader directory on the hidden EFI volume:
cd /d R:\efi\microsoft\boot\

 

 

Use the attrib command to remove the hidden, read-only, and system attributes from the BCD file:

attrib BCD -s -h -r

 

Delete the current BCD configuration file by renaming it (this will keep the old boot configuration as a backup):
ren BCD BCD.bak

 

Using the bcdboot.exe utility, you need to recreate the BCD store by copying the UEFI boot environment files to the boot partition from the Windows directory:
bcdboot C:\Windows /l en-us /s k: /f ALL

  • C:\Windows – is the path to the directory with the latest Windows 10 installed;
  • /f ALL – means that you want to copy the Windows Boot Environment files, including those for UEFI and BIOS computers (potential ability to boot in UEFI and BIOS systems). To copy only the EFI bootloader, use the /f UEFI command;
  • /l en-us — is a type of the system locale. By default, en-us – English (USA) is used;
  • /c – this is a new BCDBoot option in Windows 10 that allows you to overwrite existing boot records (including debugsettings). Use this option to ignore old boot settings and create a clean BCD configuration;
  • /v – used to enable BCDBoot verbose output.
Hint. If you use a localized version of Windows 10, the command will be different. For example, in the Windows version for the UK, use the following command
bcdboot c:\Windows /l en-uk /s K: /f ALL
Windows 10 Dutch:
bcdboot c:\Windows /l nl-NL /s K: /f ALL
Windows 10 Deutch (German):
bcdboot c:\Windows /l de-DE /s K: /f ALL 

Now, if you run the bcdedit command, you will see the following :

An entry should appear in the Windows Boot Manager section containing the full path to the UEFI boot file (\EFI\MICROSOFT\BOOT\BOOTMGFW.EFI). In this example, it is located on volume 2 (partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume2).

 

That’s it!

By now you would have gotten your main Windows running by rebuilding a working BCD to your EFI partition.

 


 

What if you have multiple Windows running and you need the other Windows options to appear too?

Boot into the working Windows, run the software EasyBCD and add new installation to your BCD menu.

 

What if Windows boot menu is not loading, or working, and your system is loading Clover or other boot menus?

Run EasyUEFI and switch the orders of boot menu, you can delete the Windows Boot Manager from the list, and re-add it again if its status is locked as “Hidden”

 

How to fix preparing automatic repair loop during Windows start after the latest Windows feature update?

Last updated: 20200730

Sidenote:

Our clients have scheduled backups that runs Macrium Reflect, so we can always restore their computer to a certain date should the computer ever crash or become unbootable – see: https://apps.badjoerichards.com/apps/developerhack/how-to-restore-a-macrium-reflect-backup-when-your-computer-is-unbootable-or-fail-to-boot-to-windows/

 

PROBLEM:

HOWEVER, the latest Windows feature update has caused multiple computers across the globe to fail to boot, and get caught in the preparing automatic repair loop – which fails to repair booting, and users can no longer boot and use their computer.

SOLUTION:

Head to your BIOS, and change the booting device to Windows Boot Manager that is hosted on the correct disk drive!

DIAGNOSED PROBLEM:

It seems the latest Windows Feature Update installs a new Windows Boot partition info into the WRONG drive, especially if you have multiple drives on your computer.

We’re unsure what algorithm the Windows update use to pick the drive, but clearly, it’s not working correctly, therefore installing Boot Manager into the wrong drive, and causing a failed boot and repair loop.

How to enable Wifi Internet Sharing / Mobile Hotspot in Windows 10?

Search for “Mobile hotspot” on the taskbar and run the program.

If you have problems turning on, for whatever reason, maybe having disabled/deleted a network adapter, try the following:

  1. Head to Device Manager.
  2. Select View > Check “Show hidden devices”
  3. Now look for every “Microsoft Wi-Fi Direct Virtual Adapter”, and hit the Red X icon, to “Uninstall device”. Don’t worry, we’ll install them right back.
  4. After you have uninstalled all, in the same Device Manager window, select “Action > Scan for hardware changes”.
  5. This will install the new Virtual Adapters automatically.

You should now be able to enable Mobile Hotspot and configure accordingly.

 

You can now head to “Network Connections”, to rename the new “Virtual Adapter”.

 

Select the internet/ethernet/network, right click on it, properties > Sharing> Check “Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s internet connection > Select the Virtual Adapter.

How to fix or restore files lost due to corrupted partition, data disk failure or CHKDSK? Best harddisk recovery tool

Last updated: 20200216

Summary:

The best tool to restore and get all your files from the lost/corrupted partition is: EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard.

Period. It’s so good I even paid US$149 for a lifetime of upgrades. (NOTE: it’s for 1 computer only it seems, had difficulty running the software on another computer with the same license)

Disclaimer: This is NOT a paid article. I’m not affiliated even. I just need good tools to get back important data files, as that’s part of my work.

And you can use the Free version of course, but after I saw the files that it can restore, I knew I should support this software.

I’ve personally spent US thousands of dollars on lost data, and hiring experts to restore damaged HDD drives.

What it can do:

  1. Find missing files on a failed drive or lost partition.

  2. Restore lost partitions, names, files and even folders and structure!

There are about 4-5 other programs that I tried, and they are not even close. Some attempt to deep scan for 1 hour for my 256GB SSD drive, others can restore files but cannot get the names right.

Some can get files and names right, but it loses folder and path info, placing all files in 1 big folder – that’s really useless for me, my programs and work will not work.

How?

Make sure you do not write or force a CHKDSK on your drive when you see partition failure or missing files. You don’t want to risk overwriting any files.

If you are trying out various programs to restore files, choose to restore files TO ANOTHER DRIVE. It is very important to restore to ANOTHER DRIVE.

What happened?

So I have an SSD that suddenly started automatically running CHKDSK during a system restart.

And that was it, the files in the drive are no longer accessible and when accessing the drive from Windows File Explorer, it says:

X:\ is not accessible.

The disk structure is corrupted and unreadable.

 

Thank you so much Windows. So I had to research ways to fix it.

I googled and started trying:

  1. MiniTool Partition Wizard, and used Data Recovery.
  2. Recuva
  3. Stella

I must admit MiniTool Partition Wizard is a great software, if you want to copy, resize and upgrade your SSD or HDD drives. It is incredible for resizing! But when it came to data recovery, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is king.

MiniTool manage to list and restore all my files without their filenames.

Recuva managed to list and restore all my files, with their filenames, but without their folder structure -they were all in 1 large folder.

Stella took 1 hour and hung when trying to restore my SSD.

 

Let me know if my advice worked for you, or other tools you tried.

How to fix “XXXXXXX can’t run on Windows” error for your Application?

After installing Cumulative update for your Windows 10, your program cannot start with the error message:

XXXXXX can’t run on Windows
Check for an updated version of this app that runs on Windows.
Compatibility Assistant
Check for updates – Dismiss

To bypass this problem and continue running the program:

  1. Download and run this tool:

    Compatibility Administrator (64-bit)

  2. Find the program that cannot run, then DISABLE the ENTRY that has: AppHelp – HARDBLOCK

  3. That’s it!

 

How to use an Apple Superdrive on a non-Mac PC on Windows?

You need:

  1. Latest Bootcamp 6 Drivers for Windows 10
  2. If you are an advanced user, you can also sift through this file using Wordpad to find an even updated driver, but the above file in Step 1 will work as of 20181203.
  3. Use 7-Zip or Winrar to open the AppleBcUpdate.exe file.
  4. Head to BootCamp\Drivers\Apple in the file
  5. Run AppleODDInstaller64.exe and install the drivers.
  6. That’s it! Your DVD drive should now appear.

 

References:

http://osxdaily.com/2018/02/25/use-apple-superdrive-windows/

https://digiex.net/threads/apple-windows-10-bootcamp-6-drivers-download-applebcupdate-exe-april-1st-2016.14828/