I thought I'd try again in "clean boot" mode, but there was no difference. Of course something a 3rd party program did or maybe one of my customization registry fixes may have done it and the problem remains even when the program is not running.
I also thought I'd run in safe mode (via msconfig) to see how it behaved but that opened a new can of worms and an opportunity to learn (from your valuable tutorial) about safe mode and bcdedit. My computer got stuck in a continuous reboot cycle. Upon googling, I got good and bad advice. The good was "you must boot outside of windows since windows is now useless" The bad was "you need to edit the boot.ini file". Took a while to find any mention of bcdedit but I sure found a lot of frustrated Vista/7 users saying "there is no booy.ini". So my next question is why when I use msconfig to go into safe mode I'm stuck in a continuous reboot loop.
My Computer
Computer type
PC/Desktop
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
OQO 2+
OS
Windows 8 Pro w/MC 32-bit
CPU
Intel Atom 1.86 GHz
Motherboard
OQO 2+
Memory
2 GB
Graphics Card(s)
Intel GMA 500
Sound Card
IDT
Monitor(s) Displays
LCD
Screen Resolution
800 x 480 (portable) 1280 x 1024 (docked)
Hard Drives
64 GB SSD
PSU
9 Ah Battery (portable) or OQO Brick (docked)
Case
Shirt Pocket Sized
Cooling
Tiny Fan
Keyboard
Slide out (portable) DiNovo Edge (docked)
Mouse
Eraser head (portable) Logitech Bluetooth (docked)
That is basically a method of getting to "startup repair":
"7. Windows will search for an attempt to repair startup problems". I was able to do a startup repair via my Windows install disk. I looked at the list of tests it performed and it's conclusion was that it passed every test so it decided there was nothing wrong with Windows boot process. But after I hit "restart" it booted up to the login screen and then immediately did a shut down and restart again. That's what led me to bcdedit and your tutorial. Should it matter if I get to startup repair via the hard drive vs. the Windows Install disk?
My Computer
Computer type
PC/Desktop
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
OQO 2+
OS
Windows 8 Pro w/MC 32-bit
CPU
Intel Atom 1.86 GHz
Motherboard
OQO 2+
Memory
2 GB
Graphics Card(s)
Intel GMA 500
Sound Card
IDT
Monitor(s) Displays
LCD
Screen Resolution
800 x 480 (portable) 1280 x 1024 (docked)
Hard Drives
64 GB SSD
PSU
9 Ah Battery (portable) or OQO Brick (docked)
Case
Shirt Pocket Sized
Cooling
Tiny Fan
Keyboard
Slide out (portable) DiNovo Edge (docked)
Mouse
Eraser head (portable) Logitech Bluetooth (docked)
Yes, the clean install will eventually fix both the problem with the "shell:xxx" commands and the problem of creating the infinite loop when booting into safe mode from msconfig. But apparently the only way to get out of the "infinite safe-mode-boot loop" is to use bcdedit via command prompt (provided by an install disk) to delete the "safeboot" line per your great tutorial: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/69585-safe-mode.html bcdedit /deletevalue {your bcdedit identifier name} safeboot
My Computer
Computer type
PC/Desktop
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
OQO 2+
OS
Windows 8 Pro w/MC 32-bit
CPU
Intel Atom 1.86 GHz
Motherboard
OQO 2+
Memory
2 GB
Graphics Card(s)
Intel GMA 500
Sound Card
IDT
Monitor(s) Displays
LCD
Screen Resolution
800 x 480 (portable) 1280 x 1024 (docked)
Hard Drives
64 GB SSD
PSU
9 Ah Battery (portable) or OQO Brick (docked)
Case
Shirt Pocket Sized
Cooling
Tiny Fan
Keyboard
Slide out (portable) DiNovo Edge (docked)
Mouse
Eraser head (portable) Logitech Bluetooth (docked)