Start Windows 10 in Safe mode
Windows 10 inherited the boot options from Windows 8 and comes with the same graphical environment for various recovery related tasks. Due to this, the Safe mode is hidden by default in favor of the automatic repair engine shipped with the new OS. If Windows 10 fails to boot, it starts the automatic repair mode and tries to analyze and fix startup problems on its own without your help and without asking you what actions it is going to take. If you feel you need to run Windows 10 in Safe mode, e.g. to troubleshoot some issue with drivers and apps, here are instructions on how you can access Safe Mode.
There are at least two options which allow you to start Windows 10 in Safe Mode. Let’s delve deeper.
Boot Windows 10 in Safe mode via Troubleshoot options of the Recovery environment
- Boot into Troubleshooting options. The following screen will appear on the display:
- Click the Troubleshoot icon.
- Next, click the Advanced options icon:
- On the next screen, click the Startup options icon:
- Click the Restart button and your PC will reboot:
- After reboot, you will see the Startup settings screen:
To enter Safe mode, press the appropriate function key, i.e. F4.
You are done.
Tip: You can start Windows 10 in Safe Mode this way using bootable media too, for example, if you have a bootable USB stick with Windows 10 Setup.
Start Windows 10 in Safe Mode using the bootloader option
Open an elevated command prompt and type the following command:
Bcdedit /set {bootmgr} displaybootmenu yes
This will enable the regular text-based boot menu. Now restart Windows and be ready to press F8 before Windows starts booting. After the power on self test (POST) checks of the BIOS are complete, the good old textual boot menu will appear:
Press F8 there to get the boot menu. Choose Safe Mode or Safe Mode with Networking and press Enter. After you are done working in Safe Mode, you can turn off the text-based boot loader and revert to the graphical one using the following command:
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