How does Windows boot to advanced recovery option e.g. command prompt?

Hi,I need to determine which area to look at. I.e. exactly how does Windows configure itself to restart to the chosen advanced recovery option?

I'd be happy to compare the results of running any command with that of a correctly functioning system.

Symptoms
None of my advanced recovery options (restart to Safe Mode, command prompt, startup repair, system restore) have worked since upgrading to the Creator's build. They were ok in the Anniversary build. The upgrade went smoothly.

After trying various repairs, which made things worse rather than better, I've got back to where I was.

My PC boots normally.
When my PC restarts to Safe Mode, I see my PC logo and 'Please wait'.
When it restarts to other options, I just see my PC logo, nothing more. It just hangs.

There's no error message nor easily defined symptom to search for that I can think of.

(See this and particularly my last post if interested - the end result is I'm back where I started, having learnt a bit!)
Creator's upgrade appeared ok, but Advanced Recovery functions fail - Windows 10 Forums)

Or depending on your profile, you can use this:

Code:

bcdedit /set {default} advancedoptions True
bcdedit /set {current} advancedoptions True

Hi, thanks to both. Resetting my PC isn't a realistic option as that would remove all programs. A huge job to recover. (Note I tried an in-place repair install as in the thread I quoted).

I've tried

bcdedit /set {current} advancedoptions True
and indeed that does give me a set of options each time on boot, including booting to Safe Mode, which works.

Now, I'm therefore guessing that what is not happening when, from normal mode, for example I SHIFT +left click restart, then select one of the advanced recovery options, is that the bcd is not being written correctly to achieve the above.

Clearly doing that does affect the boot, as my PC does not then boot normally, but hangs as I described.

Any clues as to how to investigate further?

Presently:
Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume6
path \EFI\MICROSOFT\BOOT\BOOTMGFW.EFI
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-us
inherit {globalsettings}
default {current}
resumeobject {ea28bca1-a098-11e7-8bcb-a434d962e85a}
displayorder {current}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=C:
path \windows\system32\winload.efi
description Windows 10
locale en-us
inherit {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence {ea28bca3-a098-11e7-8bcb-a434d962e85a}
displaymessageoverride CommandPrompt
recoveryenabled Yes
advancedoptions Yes
isolatedcontext Yes
allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \windows
resumeobject {ea28bca1-a098-11e7-8bcb-a434d962e85a}
nx OptIn
bootmenupolicy Standard

C:\windows\system32>

Boot menu policy - set text or graphical style boot menu Windows 8

Laptops have usually problem with default/standard bootmenupolicy. Those 3 options are suggested.

Code:

bcdedit /set {bootmgr} displaybootmenu no
bcdedit /set {current} bootems no
bcdedit /set {current} bootmenupolicy legacy

Hi @zbook - yes, there was that error number- then- however, after the changes detailed in that thread and above, SHIFT click restart from the Safe Mode login screen now behaves in exactly the same way as from Normal Mode- the Advanced Options hang with no error report.

- from one thread you quote- I don't see either error now. (I did try reading about that at the time of course).

0xc0000454 Starting Problem

Sometime my laptop start up with an error code of 0xc0000454
error message: The boot configuration data for your PC is missing or contains errors.

@TairikuOkami
- This laptop was working fine for some 18 months before the Creator's upgrade, and advanced startup options were no problem.

However, perhaps one way forward now is simply to work with what I have now, where at least I can boot to the various options by manual selection, and hope that come the next build upgrade the problem will disappear.

Which still leaves me puzzled as to why selecting an advanced startup option in the normal way leaves me with a hung boot until I power off and restart.

I'll read through the links and see if there's any clue. Thanks.

Steve C said:

Is this perhaps another example of poor software QA by Microsoft?

There is a virtually infinite range of hardware and software combinations. No QA procedure could check everything or else nothing would ever released.

It seems something went wrong in the original upgrade- as to what is impossible to say. It's a problem that doesn't seem amenable to being repaired; the bcd data doesn't seem to be updated appropriately when I click one of the advanced startup commands to cause the correct form of restart.

The odd thing is something is updated enough to cause the boot to hang once, until I power off. If I knew why that was, there might be a clue.

Of course, there are no diagnostic tools one could use during this sequence, which I wish I understood better. It seems the partitions are ok, but the earlier error messages (could not write bcd data e.g.) may have been misleading.

(And I agree with @cereberus this is probably not a QA issue, bar the questionable appropriateness of the error messages- a common problem with MS).