How to Start or Boot Windows in Safe Mode When “F8” Key doesn’t Work? Add Extra “Safe Mode” Option to Boot Loader
The tip mentioned in this tutorial will work for all Windows versions. This is the best and easiest way to start your computer in Safe Mode. You’ll be able to force Windows to start or boot in Safe Mode without any need of pressing F8 key at system startup. You can also add an extra dedicated entry to always start your Windows in Safe Mode in Windows boot loader.
“Safe Mode” in Windows is a special mode which is mainly used for troubleshooting purposes. Many times when you can’t boot into Windows because of a virus infection, a faulty software or driver installation, you can boot into Safe Mode and fix the problem. You can scan your system with antivirus, uninstall faulty software or driver using Safe Mode and you’ll be able to boot into Windows normally without any problem.
So you can see Safe Mode is very useful feature of Windows OS. If you don’t know how to boot into Safe Mode, let us tell you in details!
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To boot into Safe Mode, you need to press “F8” key in your keyboard just before Windows boot screen appears. If you have a dual boot system, you can press “F8” key when the boot loader is shown where you select a Windows to boot. As soon as you press “F8” key, a new screen is shown which contains several booting options and on top of all options, you get an option to start Windows in Safe Mode.
Many times you are not able to get the screen where you select Safe Mode option. Sometimes “F8” key doesn’t work in many systems or sometimes you can’t press the “F8” key exactly when it needs to be pressed by you.
Then what to do in such situation? How to access Safe Mode option and boot into Safe Mode successfully?
Don’t worry. Today in this tutorial, we’ll tell you a way to force any Windows version to boot into Safe Mode. In this way, you’ll not need to press “F8” key. Just start your computer and get ready to boot Windows in Safe Mode without any problem.
UPDATE: Pressing F8 key at startup to select Safe Mode option no longer works in Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. To learn how to start or boot in Safe Mode in Windows 8/8.1/10, check out following new updated guide:
So without wasting time, lets start the tutorial:
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1. Type msconfig in RUN or start menu search box and press Enter. It’ll open System Configuration Utility window.
2. Now go to “BOOT.INI” tab in Windows XP and “Boot” tab in Windows Vista and later Windows versions.
3. Now you just need to select Windows entry which you want to forcefully start in Safe Mode and enable “Safe Boot” option for it as shown in following screenshots:
Windows XP or Windows Server 2003:
Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 10:
4. That’s it. Click on Apply button and you have successfully enabled Safe Mode feature to start Windows in Safe Mode.
Now when you’ll start your system next time, it’ll start booting Windows in Safe Mode automatically and you’ll be able to boot Windows into Safe Mode without any problem.
Following screenshot shows Windows running in Safe Mode:
IMPORTANT INFO:
Once you enable “Safe boot” option in MSCONFIG, your computer will always start in Safe Mode. If you decide to disable Safe Mode and start your Windows in normal mode, uncheck “Safe boot” checkbox in “Boot” or “BOOT.INI” tab of MSCONFIG window and apply changes. Now restart your computer and Windows will boot in normal mode again.
Table of Contents
BONUS TIP FOR ADVANCED USERS:
You can also add a new special option in Windows boot loader to boot Windows into Safe Mode. In this way, whenever your system boots, you’ll get 2 options to select: Boot in normal mode and boot in Safe Mode. If you select Safe Mode option from Windows boot loader, your Windows will start in Safe Mode automatically.
We have divided this bonus tip in 2 parts for your convenience:
- STEP 1: Adding a new entry for Safe Mode in Windows boot loader
- STEP 2: Adding functionality to new entry in Windows boot loader
STEP 1: Adding a New Entry for Safe Mode in Windows Boot Loader
First we’ll add a new entry in Windows boot loader to start Windows in Safe Mode. We’ll do that by making a copy of existing Windows entry in boot loader.
This method is different for Windows XP and Windows Vista and later Windows versions.
For Windows XP and Windows Server 2003:
1. Right-click on My Computer icon and select Properties. It’ll open System Properties window. You can directly open it by using sysdm.cpl command in RUN.
2. Now go to “Advanced” tab and click on “Settings” button present in “Startup and Recovery” section.
3. It’ll open a new window. Now click on “Edit” button as shown in following screenshot:
4. It’ll open “boot.ini” file in Notepad. This is the main file which provides required information to Windows boot loader like which entries should be shown, how much time should be given to users, etc.
The boot.ini file content should be similar to following:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=”Microsoft Windows XP Professional” /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
5. Now we need to make a copy of existing Windows entry. We’ll select the last line showing “Microsoft Windows XP Professional”, copy it and paste it at the end. So now the file content should look like following:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=”Microsoft Windows XP Professional” /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=”Microsoft Windows XP Professional” /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
As you can see now there are 2 same entries in the file. Now edit the 2nd entry and add “Safe Mode” text after Windows XP Professional label.
So the final content of the boot.ini file would look like following:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=”Microsoft Windows XP Professional” /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=”Microsoft Windows XP Professional Safe Mode” /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
Save the file and close it.
That’s it. We have successfully added a new entry in boot loader to start Windows in Safe Mode.
For Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 10:
The boot loader in Windows Vista and later Windows versions is quite different from Windows XP boot loader. It doesn’t use boot.ini file. Although you can use built-in BCDEDIT command to modify boot loader, its a bit complicated task. So we are going to use a freeware “VistaBootPro” to modify boot loader in Windows Vista/7/8/8.1/10 versions.
1. First download and install VistaBootPro using following link:
2. Now open the software and click on “Manage OS Entries” tab. The program might show a warning message for Windows 7 and later users, ignore it.
3. You’ll see a checkbox “Add New OS Entry” at the bottom of the window. Enable the checkbox, provide any desired name in “OS Name” text box which you want to set for new entry in boot loader to start Windows in Safe Mode. We’ll use “Windows 7 Safe Mode” for OS Name.
Select “OS Type” as “Windows Vista“. Don’t worry! Even if you are editing Windows 7/8/8.1/10 boot loader, you’ll need to select Windows Vista as OS type. It’ll work without any problem.
Select “OS Drive” as C:.
4. That’s it. Click on “Apply Updates” button and you have added a new entry in Windows boot loader to start Windows in Safe Mode.
STEP 2: Adding Functionality to New Entry in Windows Boot Loader
In above step we have added a new entry in Windows boot loader but it’ll not start Windows in Safe Mode as we have not changed the entry functionality.
In this step, we’ll set the entry to start Windows in Safe Mode.
1. Open msconfig using RUN or start menu search box as mentioned above.
2. Go to “BOOT.INI” tab in Windows XP and “Boot” tab in Windows Vista and later versions.
3. Now select the new entry for Safe Mode which we created in Step 1 and enable “Safe Boot” option for it.
4. That’s it. Click on Apply button and you have successfully added a new entry in Windows boot loader to start Windows in Safe Mode.
Testing and Using “Safe Mode” Option Present in Windows Boot Loader
Now when you’ll start your system, you’ll see the new option to start Windows in Safe Mode present in boot loader as shown in following screenshot:
Select the option using arrow keys and press Enter key. It’ll start booting Windows in Safe Mode and you’ll be able to boot Windows into Safe Mode without any problem.
Feel free to share your feedback or ask any question regarding this tutorial in your comment…
I think the question being asked is how to get into safe mode when you start or restart your PC and your wireless keyboard doesn’t function until Windows is loaded.
Adding a new option in Windows boot loader to boot Windows into Safe Mode is a great idea. But if your wireless keyboard doesn’t allow you to hit F8 how are you going to be able to scroll down to click on it?
There were times I could get into Safe Mode and then the keyboard wouldn’t work.
Using my wired keyboard there is no problem. Inconvenient plugging it back in to the PC and unplugging.
Using msconfig is very helpful using the Boot….Safe boot option. Keyboard works fine in Safe Mode.
What happens if you can’t get into msconfig from Windows?
I start my PC and the keyboard doesn’t work to get into F2 settings or F8 Safe Mode
If I use my Windows CD I can’t boot into it using F12 boot menu options because keyboard not working.until Windows loads.
I love this solution. Seems easy to apply. But I dont need ‘Safe Mode’ to appear, I need ‘Repair Your Computer’ showing on Boot. Can you give me suggestion for that?!
Recently I cant access ‘Repair Your Computer’ every I press F8 it redirect to Normal Booting.
Please, ‘Repair Your Computer’ option is more useful for me than ‘Safe Mode’. Please! Tell me how! Thanks!
Well. information is useful but not in my PC problem is it restart over again and again in boot time only not letting me choose anything.. and key F8 is not working at all nothing appears on screen only F2 to enter in BIOS. Tried a lot but my system does not work at all. suggest me how to enter the command suggested by you when problem is to load the OS once.. so that i can make the change.
thanks in advance
^^ The main purpose of this tutorial was to add Safe Mode option in Windows boot loader which can be used for troubleshooting purposes. Your case is different. You can boot using Windows setup disc and then try to repair Windows.
what do i do if the systems window cannot open either
If system is not booting and also F8 is not working what to do
why when i select F8 my computer show “Please select boot device” please help me!?
^^ Your computer is showing select boot device menu upon F8 press. As soon as you pass that screen, immediately press F8 again.
i have a big problem to entry in the safe mode i was trying your mode but in the SYSTEM CONFIGURATION UTILITY i don t have boot.ini tab why????
I have a modem but windows can’t detect it when i use safe mode (windows7) .Can you please fine me a way so that i can force windows to detect it.Please Bro Help ЁЯША
Options for boot.ini (XP):
Modus: Abgesicherter Modus
Befehlszeilenoption: /safeboot:minimal /sos /bootlog /noguiboot
Modus: Abgesicherter Modus mit Netzwerktreibern
Befehlszeilenoption: /safeboot:network /sos /bootlog /noguiboot
Modus: Abgesicherter Modus mit Eingabeaufforderung
Befehlszeilenoption: /safeboot:minimal(alternateshell) /sos /bootlog /noguiboot
Modus: Startprotokollierung aktivieren
Befehlszeilenoption: /bootlog
Modus: VGA-Modus aktivieren
Befehlszeilenoption: /basevideo
Modus: Verzeichnisdienstwiederherstellung (Windows-Dom├дnencontroller)
Befehlszeilenoption: /safeboot:dsrepair /sos
Modus: Debugmodus
Befehlszeilenoption: /debug
example boot.ini where Windowsdirectory is WINNT:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT=”Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server” /fastdetect /SAFEBOOT:MINIMAL(ALTERNATESHELL)
Hi, thanks for the above details, but on my windows 7 Ultimate I have activated paragon 9 boot manager, so whatever button I press, I get boot manager windows, with two options, one is floppy disk and the other is win vista, which when I press enter I get a black screen with a flashing cursor at the top left corner. However if I put my original Windows 7 dvd, I can get the message to log through that dvd, which will install windows as usual, and That I don’t need.
Please advice me on what to do. Thank you.
Dear All,
IN F5 also we can boot in safe mode.
In the Comments – SEVERAL people have described their keyboard does NOT work in startup mode and no way to scroll down to “Windows 7 Safe Mode” option. I am experiencing the exact same problem. HOWEVER – You do not offer any work-around. PLEASE TELL US HOW TO FIX THIS SITUATION. Again, my ARROW KEYS, and keyboard in general does not work. I hope you offer a fix for this. Otherwise your tutorial is worthless. BY THE WAY – the domain name: VistaBootPro.com is currently FOR SALE. Not a good sign that the company is going to be around or offer any support. WebbMan.
Immediately upon startup, prior to the BIOS attempting to load up, enter the CPU manufacturer’s BIOS Setup/ diagnostic mode. On my PC this is done by repeatedly hitting DEL at startup. Then under Integrated Peripherals, ensure that USB Keyboard Function is set to ENABLED. Then hit SAVE. Rebooting now, the keyboard should work when you get the the Safe Mode screen.
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^^ It seems you’ll need to reinstall Windows in your tablet. What problem are you facing while accessing BIOS?
This doesn’t make any sense to me because if we are in a situation where we have to launch windows in boot mode but we can’t, how can we download and run anything? I am seeking out Safe Mode because my laptop gets an error message preventing me from entering my password successfully.
In server 2008, and probably Vista, you can do faster without installing any other software.
At the Run line enter MSCONFIG and press Enter.
Click the Boot tab and select the check box next to Safe Boot,
If you have multiple lines listed in the top window (multi-boot), be sure to pick the right one.
Click OK and then restart when prompted.
This does not work in XP. I had doubts when I saw that the only thing that changed was the text within the quotes. There is nothing that reads text within quotes and then boots into safe mode.
The rest of the line is the part that boots the computer and it’s exactly the same, so it boots exactly the same.
It anyone has ever gotten this to work on an XP I would like to know.
^^ You missed the STEP 2. We add functionality to the new entry in step 2.
MSCONFIG boot tab – Easy and elegant and lot of options
In my case using Vista Business my keyboard was hooked up via USB. I switched out to a PS2 keyboard. The F8 key then got me into the “Advanced Boot Options” and from there to Safe Mode.
Hope this helps some of you out there.
You know the screen where some options like “Safe Mode” or “Start Windows Normal” On my Computer it starts then the first screen is loading (f8 doesn’t work for some reason) when i push F1 i come into the failure thing screen (the screen with safe mode or safe mode with drivers and etc.) i cannot push any Button. And then the Time runs out… the computer doesn’t start Windows It restarts itself…
doesn’t work. Obviously I can’t enter safe mode because of undoing updates and f8 doesn’t work.
what to do, if the problem is ” User logon failed” and F8 key is not responding after repeated restart..
my computer is not starting up and f8 also not working , how to deal with it , is os crushed ?
Did not work with my Vista Ultimate x64 PC.
Did everything according to your instructions.
Downloaded and installed VistaBootPRO.
Ran Msconfig and changed new entry to “Safe Boot”.
Upon reboot I enter my bios password and the PC starts booting to Windows Vista, without any boot manager and boot selections.
I will try setting the new “Safe Boot” to the default boot to see what happens.
I think the problem may be I have another boot option “Macrium Reflect System Recovery” that listed at the top above Windows Vista.
Hello Vishal,
I am facing one issue – my Laptop is not getting started, it got stuck in between during Automatic Repair. It keeps on saying “diagnosing your PC” but after that nothing coming up.
I am trying to boot in Safe Mode, that too is not working (tried everything F8, F5, everything). Please help me out, bit urgent.
Regards,
Irfan
^^ It seems there is some problem in your Windows either some corrupted or missing system files. You’ll need to let it complete the repair process or do a clean install of Windows.