Windows 7

Prevent the System from Automatically Restarting after a Failure

SUMMARY: If Windows 7 fails with a Blue Screen, prevent the system from automatically restarting so you can view debug information.

If Windows 7 fails and displays a Blue Screen (possibly due to a driver error), this includes some debug information. More detail in a kernel memory dump is written to the system hard drive, and then the machine reboots.

While servers for the most part need to automatically reboot upon system failure so they can more quickly restart and handle requests, desktop computer users may not need this functionality. By reading the on-screen debug data and using search engines or posting it to forums, the cause of the critical restart may be found and in some cases fixed.

1. Click the "Start" button, selecting "Control Panel".

2. If you are using an expanded Control Panel, select "System".

Otherwise click "System and Security", then "System".

3. In the left pane, select "Advanced system settings".

4. If the User Account Control dialog box appears, click "Yes".

5. The "System Properties" multi-tabbed dialog box appears. Click the "Advanced" tab.

6. Underneath "Startup and Recovery", click the "Settings" button.

Accessing Windows 7's Startup and Recovery settings

7. The "Startup and Recovery" dialog box appears. Underneath "System failure", uncheck "Automatically restart".

Configuring Windows 7 to not automatically restart when it detects a system failure

8. Click "OK" on the dialog boxes to close them.

Return to the Windows 7 page.

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