Daddy Bob

DADDY BOB'S COMPUTER Q & A

 

August 23, 2009

Q. To fix problems, I am often told to boot into safe mode by pressing F8. This never seems to work for me so is there another way to force safe mode?

A. Pressing the F8 key during the boot up process at the precisely correct time will force the boot up into safe mode. BUT.... pressing it at this exact time is often very difficult or near impossible on some computers. Rapidly tapping the F8 key usually will work, but in the case where it doesn't, there is an alternative.

Windows XP and later have safe modes and this alternative method will work in any of them. XP is slightly different from Vista and Windows 7 as will be shown herein. In all cases, the pretty well known System Configuration utility is used. To open this utility, Click Start, then Run, and enter msconfig. This dialog will be displayed when the Boot tab is selected. (This view is for Vista and Windows 7)

To force the safe boot, click the box labeled Safe boot. Be sure that Minimal is also checked.

In XP, the display is slightly different. Click Start, then Run and enter msconfig. This dialog is displayed when the "BOOT.INI" tab has been selected. (XP)

Under Boot Options, click the box in front of /SAFEBOOT. Here too, be sure that Minimal is also selected.

Once this setting has been changed, the computer will always boot into its safe mode. After whatever procedures you wanted to do in safe mode have been completed, the above should be reversed, that is the safe mode boot option unchecked, to return the computer to its normal boot up procedure.

A further note here concerning Vista. In the msconfig dialog shown above, note the option under Boot options labeled "No GUI boot". Selecting this will display a graphic file during the boot up instead of the normal boring black screen.

This setting has a less than desirable effect in Windows 7, so I prefer to choose the "No GUI boot" setting for Vista only. Windows 7 has other, more desirable abilities to display graphics during boot up which will be covered in another article after Windows 7 becomes generally available on October 22, 2009.

Click HERE to view or download as a Microsoft Word document

Disclaimer:

The materials in this site are provided "as is" and without warranties of any kind, either express or implied. To the fullest extent permissible pursuant to applicable law, I disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. I do not warrant that the functions contained in the materials on this site will be uninterrupted or error-free, that defects will be corrected, or that any site or the servers that make such materials available are free of viruses, spyware, adware, or other harmful components, although all efforts have been made to assure that they are. I do not warrant or make any representations regarding the use or the results of the use of the materials on this site in terms of their correctness, accuracy, reliability, or otherwise. You assume the entire cost of all necessary servicing, repair, or correction. Applicable law may not allow the exclusion of implied warranties, so the above exclusion may not apply to you.