Restarting Windows in Safe Mode

If you are having trouble booting up your windows in normally, you can enter into safe mode. Safe Mode allows you to enter into windows to help fix problems that are preventing the computer from running normally. Here are the steps required to restarting windows in safe mode:

Safe Mode in Windows XP/Vista/7

To get into the Safe Mode in Windows XP, Vista or 7, re-boot the computer and then press and hold the “F8 Key” which will then bring up the “Windows Advanced Options Menu“. Scroll down to “Safe Mode” using the arrow keys and press Enter.

Note that sometimes if you press and hold the F8 key, some computers will start to beep annoyingly, so in that case, simply hold the F8 key continuously during the boot up period.

If you are still not able to get into Safe Mode, you can try to kill the power on the computer to turn it off and then turn it back on. If Windows shuts down unexpectedly, it will usually bring up the Advanced Boot Options menu automatically. If that doesn’t work, you can read my previous post on getting into Safe Mode if F8 is not working. This method, however, requires you to be able to log into Windows in order to tell it to boot into safe mode on the next restart.

Safe Mode in Windows 8/10

In Windows 8 and Windows 10, the process of getting into safe mode is completely different. The F8 key no longer works because the boot process is too fast.

The only way to get into safe mode is to boot into System Recovery Options, which is where you can perform various troubleshooting tasks including starting in safe mode.

I’ve already written about how to boot to the Windows 8 System Recovery Options screen, but the process is slightly different for Windows 10, so I’ll mention it here. In Windows 10, there are two ways to get to therecovery options screen. Firstly, you can click on the new Start button, which is back again in a different form, and then hold down the SHIFT key and click on the power button.

While still holding down the SHIFT key, click on Restart. The other way is the same as Windows 8, but it just looks a bit different. Click on the Start button and then click on Settings as shown above.

This will bring up a new Settings dialog that basically replaces the PC Settings dialog in Windows 8. Here you will click on Update & recovery.

Now you’ll see the options to refresh your PC, reinstall everything or restart in advanced startup mode.

At this point, the process to get into Safe Mode in Windows 8 or Windows 10 is the same. You’ll now see three options: Continue, Troubleshoot and Turn off your PC.

Now just follow the instructions on my article on booting to safe mode in Windows 8. You basically click onTroubleshoot and go from there. Windows 8 and Windows 10 are also a lot smarter than previous versions and will normally bring up the recovery options automatically if a problem is detected while booting.