Safe Mode Archives - Page 2 of 2

How to enable the F8 key for booting Windows 10/11 into Safe Mode

Posted on December 16, 2022

Rick’s Tech Tips Newsletter

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. [Read more…]

How to initiate a System Restore when your PC won’t boot into Windows

Posted on August 27, 2021

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System Restore is a powerful tool for reversing detrimental changes to your PC’s Windows installation.

In a nutshell, System Restore allows you to “roll back” the Windows installation to the state it was in at a time before the detrimental changes were made.

For example, lets say that somehow a critical Windows setting gets changed and your system starts doing strange and unexpected things.

You can usually fix this type of issue by simply using System Restore to roll Windows back to a Restore Point that was created a few days earlier.

System Restore is typically launched from within Windows, but what if the issue at hand is so severe that your PC won’t boot up into Windows at all? [Read more…]

Q&A: Is there any way to do a System Restore when Windows won’t boot at all?

Posted on July 19, 2015

Question from Brenda Y.: I have a BIG problem Rick, and I really need your help. My computer (Lenovo desktop w/ Windows 7) was installing updates last night when it just shut off. It does that sometimes when my heat pump turns on.

Anyway, when I turned it back on it refused to boot up all the way into Windows. It’ll start, then hang up after the Windows logo is displayed. I even tried booting it into Safe Mode but it gets stuck there too.

I’d like to try to do a System Restore, but I can’t because the computer won’t boot up at all. Is there any way to do a System Restore manually without having to actually have Windows loaded?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Enable the F8 key for booting into Safe Mode in Windows 8.1

Posted on April 29, 2013

When Microsoft designed Windows 8/8.1 they optimized the boot process in order to make Windows load faster.

While this was a welcome change from previous Windows versions, the faster boot time made it impossible to use the F8 key to load the Boot Menu for booting into Safe Mode.

If you prefer the convenience of being able to boot into Safe Mode in Windows 8 by pressing the F8 key at startup over the faster boot process, you can re-enable the F8 key and have it work just like it always has. Here’s how: [Read more…]