2017-05-14 06:10:51

Warning! I am not responsible if this bricks your current copy of windows!
Please test on a vm or disposable copy of windows!
Hi all. I am certain you have heard of the windows safe mode operating environment. As you may be aware, there is no feedback by default.
A recent run of tron, a command batch cleaning utility made me determined to fix this problem. And thus, I came up with this
Please note, if you don't know what your doing, just stop now, pick another topic. This can seriously break your current windows installation and require a restore.
This is only tested on windows 7.
First, start by going to device manager. Run it directly if you want, devmgmt.msc.
Find your active device under sound, video and game controllers. Press enter on it.
On the window that appears, go over to the details tab, and find the value called driver key. Copy it.
Close all the windows that were created in the process and open up notepad. Paste in the value.
Convert all the lowercase letters to uppercase, and remove the \0008 at the end. What you want is the device ID in braces.
Keep that handy, then open up regedit. Navigate to the following: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SafeBoot
Choose networking and expand it. Create a new key with the device ID you obtained. In it's default value, enter Sound, video and game controllers
Navigate back to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SafeBoot\Network
and create the following keys: MMCSS, audiosrv, and AudioEndpointBuilder.
In each of there default values, type Service

Close regedit, open msconfig and go to the boot tab.
Select safe mode, shortcut alt f, very important remember this if this fails, and select networking.
Exit msconfig and allow the machine to restart. You should now have some form of output.
Please note, NVDA is the only screen reader tested. Braille support also remains untested. It should be a matter of following these instructions to obtain braille output if desired.
Safe mode is not a mode that is supposed to be used constantly, so please, do not enable absolutely everything. That's what normal startup is for.
To exit safe mode, open msconfig, navigate to boot by pressing ctrl tab, press alt f, safe mode should now be unchecked. If you have no speech and don't know how to get out, Press enter without pressing anything else, the exit prompt will appear. Press alt r and the machine should restart.
Give it a moment and you will eventually be back to normal.
Please note, I am not responsible if I brick your machine! Please test this on a sandbox of windows before deploying.
If there are any questions, please do get in touch.
I hope this helps the geeks and IT tinkerers among us!

2017-05-14 10:30:06 (edited by jack 2017-05-14 16:21:29)

Now for people who have a mac, there's a second method to get no audio, but speech, while in safe mode with networking, that won't damage your system if you're not comfortable going inside the system to this extent. It involves being able to remember the keystrokes to select Tyler Spivey's Macintalk for Nvda synth, provided it's preconfigured. This thing will run without the aid of the soudcard, like a hardware synth. Hell, if you have a hardware synth laying around, even better, you might as well plug that in and use that instead especially if you don't have a mac around. Hell, it may even work in normal safe mode as long as the hardware drivers are active during that mode. Anyway, when in safe mode, start nvda, ctrl+alt+n normally. After a few seconds, ctrl+nvda+s, then press b for bridge. Hit enter. If done right, you should hear speech while in safe mode, without the aid of your soundcard.

2017-05-14 15:31:51

You really odn't ned safe mode anymore, I don't think I've had one instance where I've eneded to go into safe mode since my XP days, and that was like what, last in 06, 07, I didn't hang onto XP believe me, I jumped ship as soon as win 7 came out, I skipped over Vista, because I heard about what a piece of shit it was and boy am I glad I did, I've heard of several instances of Vista in its early days destroying hard drives and stuff of that nature. Anyway, yeah, in win 7 and up, I've never needed safe mode. Pretty cool though, I'll give you props for coming up with that.

Facts with Tom MacDonald, Adam Calhoun, and Dax
End racism
End division
Become united

2017-05-14 17:36:57

Yeah, never been an instance of my needing safe mode anymore; if you regularly back up your windows registry, understand the risks of what you're installing before you install it, and keep a fair amount of security software at your disposal while simultaneously applying a little common sense, you're golden.  If you have money, that usually means Eset smart security or anything else they provide.  Free?  Most blind and VI people I'd say pick MSE owing to accessibility as well as the set and forget aspect that makes it so easy and simple to use while staying, relatively safe.

When life gives you oranges, demand lemons since everyone else is obviously getting them.

2017-05-14 19:56:15

Only problem where I could see users inadvertently invoking safe mode or system restore is when so-called startup repair on windows 7 and above will practically ram itself down your throat if if sees that your system was improperly shut down. Sure, they say you're not supposed to do that and all, and for a normal machine it might not be as much of an issue as, say, my situation of running virtual machines off an external hard drive where it used to for whatever reason cut power to the drive, but regardless if you enable system restore before boot, you're in safe mode. Even installing Jaws! crashed my virtual machine possibly because who knows, maybe a corrupt vmware tools install or corrupt display driver, but it forced me to go into safe mode and restore. By sheer luck and advanced preparation, I had macintalk for nvda ready since it provides the benefits similar to that of a hardware synthesizer, i e, soundcard independent. Through that, I was able to restore my windows back to where it was before Jaws did whatever it did to my machine.