Booting into Safe Mode has long been a staple when troubleshooting Windows computers. Safe Mode starts Windows with only a limited set of files and drivers so you can figure out what’s wrong with your PC. But for some reason, Windows 8 and 10 make Safe Mode hard to get to. Here’s a fix for that.
Before Windows 8 came along, you could press F8 right before Windows started loading to open a text-based Advanced Boot Options menu. That menu featured handy troubleshooting tools like booting into Safe Mode and starting Windows with the last known good configuration. Starting with Windows 8, that menu was removed in favor of a graphical menu that you could access in a few different ways–all more cumbersome than the original F8 shortcut.
Fortunately, with a little Command Prompt wizardry, you can add Safe Mode right back to a boot menu that’s always available when you start up. Of course, if you just want to return to accessing the classic menu with the F8 key, we’ve got you covered there, too.
You have to do this in an Admin Command Prompt, Just enter the three commands separately :
bcdedit /copy {current} /d "Windows 10 Safe Mode"
bcdedit /copy {current} /d "Safe Mode with Networking"
bcdedit /copy {current} /d "Safe Mode with Command Prompt"
Note that it doesn’t really matter what you name the new boot entries, as long as it helps you recognize them. So, if instead of “Windows 10 Safe Mode,” you want to name your entry “Safe Mode” or even “Dorothy,” we won’t judge.
Step Two:
Configure Your New Boot Options with the System Configuration Tool
What you’ve done so far is to create one or more copies of the current boot entry.
You haven’t done any configuration yet, so if you were to boot your computer using one of them it would be the same as your regular Windows boot.
To modify those entries to do what you want, you’ll use the System Configuration tool. Hit Start, type msconfig, and then select System Configuration.
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Click the new entry you created for Windows 10 Safe Mode (or whatever you named it).
Enable the “Safe boot” check box and make sure that the Minimal option is selected underneath it.
Enable the “Make all boot settings permanent” option if it isn’t already. And, if you want, you can modify the Timeout value to specify how long you have to choose a boot option before the default OS is started.
By default, timeout is always set to 30 seconds, but you can change it to any value between 0 and 9999 seconds. You can also set the value to -1 if you want the Boot Options screen to remain until you pick an OS. When you’ve selected your options, click OK.
You’ll be asked to confirm the changes with a scary warning about everything you’ve done being permanent. Go ahead and click Yes.
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When you’re asked if you want to restart your computer, go ahead and choose “Exit without restart.” That way, you can go ahead and configure any other boot entries you’ve made.
If you created a Safe Mode with Networking entry, follow those same instructions to modify it, but after enabling “Safe boot” select the Network instead of the Minimal option.
If you created a Safe Mode with Command Prompt entry, turn on the “Alternate Shell” option instead of the Minimal option.
After you’ve configured everything, go ahead and restart your computer to test it out. At boot, you should see the “Choose an operating system” screen with your new choices.
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