I was working on a computer running Windows XP SP3 remotely last night and I needed to boot the computer in Safe Mode with Networking and then access it again. I opened up msconfig and configured it to boot in Safe Mode and I checked the networking box. I read a few articles and thought that this wouldn't be a problem, but it should have occurred to me that when in Safe Mode, Remote Desktop wouldn't work.
Anyways, this morning the employee came in and sat at her computer (which was still in Safe Mode with Networking). She logged in and read my email and we tried to think of a few ways to get the computer out of safe mode (She did not have admin credentials and there is no admin at her location). She was able to use TeamViewer on her computer because it was installed previously, LogMeIn did not work. I was able to log in the computer with TeamViewer, but her user account is logged in, and when I try to run things as an administrator it says I do not have valid permissions. I have tried with my domain admin account and the local admin account, but I think the OS never had the Admin account set up properly, because it keeps rejecting my credentials.
Anyways, I'm kind of dead in the water. I can run cmd as a basic user, and I can't figure out how to get into msconfig to tell it to boot normally.
Oh, and I did have her reboot the computer and press F8 and set it to boot normally. It still went into Safe Mode.
System Configuration
panel ('msconfig') select Boot tab, uncheck Safe Boot and check Make all boot settings permanent. Should start up normally. Also check logs in Event Viewer.