Break windows 7

sharkadder · 25 Mar 2015

Hi there,

I am doing a troubleshooting project with some young people and i am looking to try and break windows 7. I would like it so that it is non-usable and the only way around the issue is to troubleshoot the problem.

I have tried many different things such as:

Deleting one of the registry hive files
Removing all of the HAL.dll files
Removing some other key system files

The only thing i have got to work so far is renaming the windows directory so that the operating system blue screens and doesn't recognise it. This is an easy fix as people just rename the folder from a linux CD etc.

All other problems like the ones mentioned above seem to get startup repair to kick in and it remains in a loop trying to solve the problem...even after i have disabled startup repair.

Does anybody have any software based faults which i can issue on windows 7 which the startup repair will not try and fix? I would ideally like a fault where the user cannot boot up windows successfully unless they get a file/modify a file/run a script from another medium.

Many thanks

Gator · 25 Mar 2015

I could give suggestions but there are a ton of them in the link below. Very good ones. You should be able to find plenty to mess with your class :)

How to mess up a PC running Windows 7? - Super User

AddRAM · 25 Mar 2015

With XP we would go in and re name ntldr to ntldrold, they could never figure it out.

Gator · 26 Mar 2015

I did remember one program, although I don't know if this is exactly what you're looking for but Notmyfault crashed the computer for learning purposes

Q: Where can I get the Sysinternals NotMyFault tool to crash systems | Systems Management content from Windows IT Pro

Layback Bear · 26 Mar 2015

Here is a easy way to screw up some computers.

Have students go to Cnet and download 3 or 4 programs.

Two things are learned. Don't get downloads from Cnet and how to remove spyware, malware and PUP's.
Some everyday useful knowledge.

ThrashZone · 26 Mar 2015

IOBIt products seems to do a great job of messing up systems :)

Layback Bear · 26 Mar 2015

Great suggest Mike. One small problem.

I know of no one who has ever figured out how to fix all the ways IOBit products screw up systems except a Clean install.
Then it's fixed but you still don't know how and what was fixed.