Reinstate The Windows 7 MSConfig On Windows 8.

I recently wrote a post on how to get the MSConfig,System Configuration, on Windows 8. Because the problem with the one on Windows 8 is that you can no longer view or manage your start up programs from there as Microsoft have removed this feature. So it does not work anymore, you now have to go to the Windows 8 Task Manager.

But if you have replaced the TM with the Windows 7,Windows XP or Windows NT4 Task Manager you cannot do this. As they do not have this so there is no way to manage your start up programs. Unless you use a third party tool like CCleaner which is all very well but not everyone wants to do that. As CCleaner has some advanced settings where you can delete an important Windows start up program accidentally. So that's not the solution, unless you really know what you are doing.

Yes it is possible to install the MSConfig from Windows XP as I showed you here in this post.

You can view and manage your start up programs with it, but it falls short of what I want, and does not have the full functions of the MSConfig from Windows 7. But the good news is I now found a way to get the System Configuration from Windows 7 back on Windows 8.

So if you are as fed up with the Windows 8 MSConfig as I am, here is how you can get back the Windows 7 one on 8.

You need to extract 2 files from either a Windows 7 install CD or a PC running Windows 7. One is the exe program file from Windows 7 and the other is the MUI file that is needed for the program to run on Windows 8.

These are:

msconfig.exe

msconfig.exe.mui

Once you have got those files copy them to Windows 8 or Windows 8.1.

What we are going to do is replace both the Windows 8 msconfig Exe and MUI files with the ones from Windows 7. But before you do that you need to take ownership of both files because otherwise Windows won't allow you to do this. The easiest way is to install a software called Take Ownership.

Go to your C\Windows\System32 folder on Windows 8 and look the language folder that your Windows is installed in. For example, I have got Windows 8 installed in English United States language so my MUI files are in the en-US folder as shown here circled in red.

There may also be other language folders in System32 and you need to know the language you installed Windows in as the MUI files will be in that. If you installed Windows in English United Kingdom you need to look for the en-GB folder.

Once inside that folder look for the file called msconfig.exe.mui and Take Ownership of that file and delete it.

Now copy and paste the msconfig.exe.mui file you got from Windows 7 into the en-US (language folder) in C\Windows\System32 on Windows 8.

Once that is done go back to your C\Windows\System32 folder again.
Look for the msconfig.exe as shown in picture marked in red, then Take Ownership of it and delete it.

Copy and paste the msconfig.exe from Windows 7 into C\Windows\System32 folder.

Now run the program by clicking on the exe file.

System Configuration, MSConfig, from Windows 7 is now installed on Windows 8.
As you can see it is working on my Windows 8 and is fully functional. And does all the things it does on Windows 7. But more important you can now see and manage your start up programs on 8 without any problems.

Take Ownership can be downloaded from here:

Winaero Website.

See also my video on how to do this.