BleepingComputer.com: Combofix Tutorial: I'm Questioning If This Is Correct Ms Link For Recovery Console

In the ComboFix tutorial,
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/combofix/how-to-use-combofix

If you don't have a Windows CD, it directs you to a page to download the Recovery Console:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310994


Now, that page has options as described in the tutorial (for each type of operating system), but it does not ever refer to Recovery Console.

I downloaded that installer and dragged it onto ComboFix as instructed in the tutorial, but it did not seem to install Recovery Console (I'm not sure how to check for this other than by rebooting and seeing if it gives me the option to go into the Recovery Console; I did this and it appears not to have been installed) and instead it just seemed to try to start ComboFix. I stopped it at that point as I wanted to make sure that I had the Recovery Console in place before running it, and I hadn't performed other preliminary steps yet (like disabling antivirus software.)

Can anyone tell me if that is indeed the correct link to download the Recovery Console?

Thanks for your time in reading this and in answering (if you do so.)

This post has been edited by boomstick: 07 July 2008 - 09:01 AM

Hi boomstick

ComboFix is an extremely powerful tool which should only be used when instructed to do so by someone who has been properly trained. ComboFix is intended by its creator to be "used under the guidance and supervision of an expert", NOT for private use.

Please read Combofix's Disclaimer. Using this tool incorrectly could lead to disastrous problems with your operating system such as preventing it from ever starting again.

Please do not use such unless directed by the HJT Tech responding to the HJT log you have already posted here.
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/ind...howtopic=155995

Any problems you might have then will be addressed by the responding HJT Tech.

Regards,
Koan

I understand Koan, and I greatly appreciate your reply.

If I do decide to use it on my own, I take 100% responsibility for doing so....and realize that the consequences in the worst case could be needing to "nuke" the machine and start over from scratch. And even if I do, I would still agree with Koan and others here and strongly NOT RECOMMEND that anyone else do so without the proper supervision.

As far as the guide goes...it's great overall in my opinion, walking you through each screen. That actually was what indirectly confused me. (I've now installed the Recovery Console successfully.) Since everything else is so well documented, screen by screen, when I dragged the Microsoft program (which apparently contains the Recovery Center as part of a much larger package) onto the ComboFix icon, it appeared as if ComboFix was starting to run...as it started to sequence through the blue screens shown in the guide. So my impression was that what I had done was wrong, that the Recovery Console was not installed and that it was going ahead and running ComboFix itself instead. So the first time that it gave me an option (which was the end user agreement for ComboFix), I said "no" to stop the process.

In reality, I now know that it does indeed go into starting to run ComboFix, which is a bit confusing at first when you aren't expecting it and in my opinion is the only weak part of the otherwise fantastic ComboFix tutorial (that part isn't really well documented, again, just my opinion). As I ran the installer again (by dragging and dropping the Microsoft installer again), it started going through the ComboFix process as described, screen be screen. At this point I wasn't sure if it was going to install the Recovery Console or not, but I had read multiple warnings not to stop ComboFix once it was running (which is only logical with this type of software) or to even trigger events by hovering over the window and such. So I just let it do it's thing and watched the process....and sure enough, after the "Scanning" screen but before the "Completed Stages" screenshot, the dialog came up asking me if I wanted to install the Recovery Console, and everything made perfect sense again.

I did so, and then it asked me as the instructions clearly say whether I wanted to continue the scan at that point or not, and I said "no".

I'd like to thank you guys for your site, you for your reply Koan and especially Lawrence Abrams for writing the guide in the first place.