Windows software to simulate faults and error messages?

[GREED]

Hello all.

 

Not strictly about windows itself, but I am looking for a piece of clever software that can simulate windows faults and error messages for teaching/learning purposes.

 

For example, I want to simulate a full HDD (the little yellow sign bottom right corner it usually appears), I need this for the pruposes of teaching guys how to diagnose and fault find.

 

I have tried hard but have struggled to find anything. Any ideas guys?

 

Thanks

[plexer]

If they are faults that you can induce such as a full hard drive how about using a small old h/d in a pc and then running a screen capture program whilst you fill that h/d up once the message appears you have a recording and you could then go on to solve the issue and record that as well.

 

Ben

[mac_shinobi]

what sort of error messages are you after ??

 

As in blue screen of deaths or just common errors you get when running windows or what exactly ?

[GREED]

We had considered that for that point and is doable. Screen Capture seems to be the best bet so far for many a reason, but also started thinking that if I knew .net a little better I could find and draw out the alerts from Windows with a click of a (on screen) button!

[6Foot2]

You could set up a virtual machine. Apply Steady State so that you didn't have to keep repairing it/getting it back to its original condition ready for the next session. Then with the virtual machine you could simulate the errors you are looking for without harming your 'real' machine.

[Arthur]

There's a screensaver from Microsoft called BlueScreen which simulates BSODs. You can also generate BSODs on demand with the registry setting below. More details on this can be found here.

 

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\i8042prt\Parameters]
"CrashOnCtrlScroll"=dword:00000001

[mac_shinobi]

You could set up a virtual machine. Apply Steady State so that you didn't have to keep repairing it/getting it back to its original condition ready for the next session. Then with the virtual machine you could simulate the errors you are looking for without harming your 'real' machine.

 

In conjunction with this you could use something like screentoaster ( ScreenToaster - Online screen recorder. Capture screencasts instantly. ) or fraps ( FRAPS show fps, record video game movies, screen capture software ) or the likes if anyone else knows any other software ( Cam tasia ?? ) to record the specific error messages and put notes on the screen casts to indicate when and why these errors occur or you could do the same with screen grabs as per above )

[daz666]

just run windows then you will see the errors lol

[mac_shinobi]

There's a screensaver from Microsoft called BlueScreen which simulates BSODs. You can also generate BSODs on demand with the registry setting below. More details on this can be found here.

 

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\i8042prt\Parameters]
"CrashOnCtrlScroll"=dword:00000001

 

I was just thinking about the BSOD screen saver but handy to know about that reg key

[GREED]

I'm liking these suggestings. Arthur these are the kind of things I am looking for things that I can do on-demand to simulate issues. Thanks!

[Arthur]

For example, I want to simulate a full HDD (the little yellow sign bottom right corner it usually appears), I need this for the pruposes of teaching guys how to diagnose and fault find.

If you need a really quick way to fill up a HDD you should try the command below. This will create a 10GB file in the root of your C: drive almost instantaneously.

 

fsutil file createnew C:\Dummy.txt 10737418240

 

 

 

if I knew .net a little better I could find and draw out the alerts from Windows with a click of a (on screen) button!

Creating fake error messages is pretty easy using AutoIt, VBScript or PowerShell. The following example uses a third-party PowerShell function called Show-Balloon (Link) to generate a fake low disk space warning message.

 

. .\Show-Balloon.ps1; Show-Balloon "You are running out of disk space on Local Disk (C:).`nTo free space on this drive by deleting old or unneccesary files, click here..." -title "Low Disk Space" -duration 15 -messagetype "Info"

Edited October 24, 2010 by Arthur

[tech_guy]

Just install Windows ME - you'll get all the error messages you'll ever need

[Arthur]

After doing a bit more research, it seems there are actually two different registry keys depending upon which type of keyboard you have.

 

USB Keyboard

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\kbdhid\Parameters]
"CrashOnCtrlScroll"=dword:00000001

 

 

PS/2 Keyboard

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\i8042prt\Parameters]
"CrashOnCtrlScroll"=dword:00000001