In Windows 7 (and earlier versions) we could easily boot our computers into Safe Mode by repeatedly pressing the F8 key when Windows first started loading.
Starting with Windows 8, Microsoft disabled that option in order to help speed up the boot process. Personally, I have never been very fond of that change.
If you miss being able to press F8 to boot into Safe Mode on your Windows 10/11 machine, you can easily enable it with a simple command line entry.
Enabling the F8 key at Windows Startup will slow down the boot process just a tad, but I happen to believe the trade-off is worth it.
This short video shows how to enable F8 for booting into Safe Mode with both Windows 10 and Windows 11.
Note: You can watch this video at full screen by clicking the little “square” icon in the lower-right corner of the video after it begins playing.
If you prefer following written instructions, here you go:
1 – Click the Start button and type the letters CMD into the Search box. The words “Command Prompt” should pop up in the search results pane.
2 – Right-click on Command Prompt and select Run as administrator from the drop-down menu.
Note: Click Yes if a “User Account Control” window appears. You should now see a “Command Prompt” dialog box.
3 – Copy and paste the following line after the command prompt, then press the Enter key:
bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacy
You should now see a message stating “The operation completed successfully”. If not, double-check the entry above and re-paste it after the command prompt.
4 – Click the X at the top-right corner of the window to close the “Command Prompt” dialog box.
That’s all there is to it. The F8 key should now be enabled for booting into Safe Mode.
From now on when you need to boot your PC into Safe Mode, simply start tapping the F8 key at the very beginning of the boot process and keep tapping it until the “Advanced Boot Options” menu appears.
From there you’ll be able to select either Safe Mode or Safe Mode with Networking to finish booting the system into Safe Mode.
Bonus tip: Want to learn all the ins-and-outs of Windows 11? Check out Windows 11 for Dummies! (#ad)