Help! Can't even boot safe mode...

I made the mistake of loading and running Advanced Windows Care, a program that is supposed to optimize windows. I'm running XP, SP2, IE7 or should I say was.... I ran the AWC and it found several things it could do to improve my windows settings. The result upon re-boot is nothing but my wall paper... The machine appears to boot normally but then the icons and start bar blink off and on a few times and then off for good. I tried to boot in safe mode (with and without networking) and I'm faced with Microsoft Whistler Personal as the only choice for OS! When I make this only choice, windows goes right on to doing the same thing as with a normal boot up in that no icons or start bar show up. I can still pull up task manager though and through that, msconfig. The boot.ini shows:

[boot loader]
default= multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS= "Microsoft Windows Whistler Personal" /fastdetect/No Execute= OptIn

Please help me get my computer back (this is from my work laptop)

 

Try running System Restore from the Task Manager:

c:\windows\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

I hope you had it enabled. Pick a time before the problem and hope for the best.

There's nothing wrong with your boot.ini file.

 

Thanks surferdude2. I was able to successfully restore it. But where did the Whistler Personal come from?

 

My system came from HP in April of '02 and it says Whistler in the boot.ini so I guess it's nothing to be concerned about. It's a genesis issue since XP was created out of Whistler beta. A rose is a rose, you can edit anything between the " " and make it say whatever you like but it'll still boot the same. I suspect yours has always said that but you didn't get to see it until you needed to boot to the Advanced Boot Options screen (F8).

You're back in shape so that's all that matters.

All the best.