None worked. Unfortunately all the developers and IT gurus forgot a little thing when taking out the boot to safe mode… What happens when you have a video output to monitor issue because of an update. Oops. You can’t get to the login screen or other prompts when you CAN’T SEE THEM. Not everyone buys the latest and greatest hardware. Boot to safe mode helps you uninstall unstable updates/patches that throw a wrench into things like that and need to be removed to restore the system. IT REALLY needs to learn folks don’t usually get new hardware until the old one breaks, not just because it’s new or the computer wants a new one because of an update.
I tried all of the safemode methods and i can’t get it to work because i’m stuck in the infinite boot loop. It reboots too fast to hold restart for 10 seconds. I’m able to get to the boot menu but it restarts as i’m in the boot menu. I can even click on the usb file install media I have on a thumb drive, but it still restarts.
None of these methods worked for me. Have not done a reinstall Dell Alienware Aurora r 7 hanging at windows logo. Suspect Microsoft driver verify is messing up.
Hey so a family member I’m living with had an old desktop lying around that they said I could use if I wanted. So I booted it up and found a password protected user of an uncle that’s since left the picture. I have tried everything, including most of the things on this list, that are at my disposal. I don’t have anything like an installation disk or such. But I cannot seem to get safe mode to work, (and I’ve got my way into any other computer that I have tried over the years). For example when I shift restart from the login screen, it only gives one option : shut down. F8 and shift F8 do not work. The advanced boot menu (F12) and bios menu (del) in the startup are also password protected so I can’t get through that either. I’ve tried hours sifting through the command prompt, even trying to alter the users, I’ve added users to the administrators, and nothing happens. If there is any advice to get past all this, then I would greatly appreciate it. They family who is letting me use the pc said they would like the data stored on it like pictures so I’d like to help them out and find a way in. Please
On start-up I have a home screen and a nice picture — nothing else (i.e. no log-in box).
The home screen does not have a start button.
Switching the computer on and off several times does not enter Safe Mode.
I have a recovery disk, but the computer does not recognize it.
I’m very fortunate that I don’t have any problems that many of the above people have.
However, I can suggest a couple of things to do that may make life easier in the future.
Someone suggested an option to slow down the boot so that the troubleshooting menus could be selected during boot. It’s easy to do. There are a few web sites that suggest how to do it. Here is one that actually puts Safe Mode up as an option on every boot with a wait time of your choice. https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/17159-add-safe-mode-boot-options-windows-10-a.html
The other thing I have done on all of my machines is create 3 desktop shortcut icons for booting into the UEFI, Advanced Boot Menu, and Restart the PC. The command for each of these desktop icons is just a variation on the Shutdown command. You can make your own icons and include one of the following commands in each one.
UEFI and Restart are obvious but Advanced Boot allows you to select the menu options as detailed in the original article. These icons allow you to do these things without having to think too much.
You might notice that each command has a “/f /t 0” on the end of it. These are not necessary to do each function but just speed up the process. The /f overrides any problems like apps that won’t shutdown and the /t 0 (note the space between the /t and the zero) means do it now without waiting.
The Shutdown command has many options and you might find some of the other options useful. For example, you may want to shutdown or restart a remote machine. Open a Command window and type in shutdown.exe /? to see all of the options. You might also get a headache figuring out what it all means but have a look.
Hi
what stands for {default}. I’ve tried writing windows or windows 10 and it didn’t work
it also starts with x:sources and not with x: windows?
should it be all the os build key?
Thanks
We tried to boot our windows 10 64-bit computer and got a blue screen with a stop code: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. Not sure what it means but there’s a good chance the computer may have gotten hung up on an update. It tried to do an auto repair, the status progressed to 100%, then re-booted, re-booted again and got the same screen but no progress on the status. Then it freezes.
I made a Windows 10 bootable thumb drive and inserted it to try method #3. But instead of getting a command prompt with “X:windowssystem32>” I’m getting “X:Sources>”
I typed in bcdedit /set {default} safeboot minimal and got the expected response. Closed the command box and selected exit and continue to windows.
The computer begins a normal boot but then goes back into the windows setup box. What am I doing wrong? If I remove the thumb drive after the screen goes blank it repeats the automatic repair process.
anything is useful to enter the correct mode, if you get a blue screen and only the icon turns off your worker. I have Windows 10 for the 1909 version.
not much help when the wretched Windows 10 starts to boot runs the annoying never ending wheel then. drops out and re boot..a x does this repeatedly getting nowwhere Beyond doubt Windows 10 is the most abymal time waSting version of Windows since the ghastly Windows ME. Taking away the easy safe start up option is about the dumbest thing Microsoft have done since the notiorious.bios error message.. Error booting no keyboard found press any key to continue
There must be a way of doing this through a bat file or similar, the All In One Windows Repair utility from Bleeping Computer has a button that allows you restart the PC in Safe Mode.
Context: One day I just went to go on my computer (I have not used it in months until I got on that day) I turned it on Black screen and the mouse and keyboard were not working also I have no media. So can you help me with that?
I’m new to Windows 10 Pro, but it appears (from what I read in the various “tech help” articles and on MS tech pages as well) that Microsoft has bestowed upon us another lame situation in Windows 10 – MS seems to be very good at “improving” simple processes and turning them into obscure ones. While a faster boot time than in previous versions is certainly welcome, why not put a 3-second delay at the beginning of the boot process so that a user can tap an appropriate function key to access the “old” boot menu (with multiple Safe Modes) or to access BIOS? Accessing both of these functions seems now to be very kludgy.
However, not to “shoot the messenger”…thank you for your informative article.
I had that issue cloning a smaller see drive to a bigger and then trying to boot the new ssd drive. Turns out the bios settings had been altered because it was a different drive plugged in at the spot of the original drive and the boot drive it picked up by default had some old version of Windows that could not recognize my display. Once I fixed the bios boot settings, it worked. Just spent an hour working for nothing.
Updated Windows 10 on older Dell pc and now have totally black screen w/o cursor. Windows 10 had been running fine on this for some time. Have tried interrupting restart and it seems to have gone into troubleshooting mode but my screen is still black but with an occasional blip of what looks like the first troubleshoot screen. The keyboard restart of the monitor doesn’t do anything. Have tried restart many times. Need Safe Mode. Suggestions?
You made it so simple. Thank you so much for saving me days of work and possibility not resolving the problem. Your time and effort is much appreciated.
Yes the Shift + F8 suggestion got me back into this PC!
Thank you so much, I had an issue whereby changing the password on the local admin caused the Windows device to load up into a black screen with the cursor and narrator functions still fully accessible.
I used the SHIFT-restart method from the sign-in screen and it worked fine. I tested for a problem; no paste to Libre Writer, but no problem in safe mode, which supposedly means a program or service is interfering in normal mode. And now, strangely but happily, the problem is gone in normal mode without doing anything other than starting in safe mode and testing. How can this be? (I know, just don’t question it!)
Hello, I tried entering safe mode with msconfig, chose safe mode, hit apply, ok and then restarted my computer. Now it will no longer connect to my screen and my computer is completely useless. I have tried everything I could find online, but as I can’t see anything and it seems like it wont find my screen or something, I have no idea what else to do. Please help. I have tried hard rebooting several times, mashing f5 on startup, hitting F8, ctrl+shift+windows key+b, unplugging and replugging screen, switching hdmi ports and disconnecting the power source from my computer and waiting for a few seconds before reapplying it. Same thing every time. A completely black screen.
You should consider taking it to a repair shop. Your computer may have hardware problems, or it may need a complete wipe of Windows 10 and a clean reinstall.
Unfortunately my problem doesn’t seem to be mentioned on these posts.
I can get to the page “Startup Settings”, but pushing the restart button doesn’t end up at the safe mode options page, but just starts another round of “Diagnosing your problem”. The log in page is never reached either.
It was locking up in less than a minute in windows 10
The msconfig worked! From there I could check the boot in safe mode
Then go in and delete the drivers I downloaded the screwed Italy up
Used the “interupt” method, however this never allows me to access safe mode – it just tries to fix things automatically (and fails).
I cannot start using safe mode by any of the methods suggested.
So my PC will be going in the bin, due to a failed update – thanks Microsoft, awesome job.
You are a rock star. The interrupted boot was the ONLY way I could get my computer into safe mode. All of the other suggestions absolutely no longer work on my Acer all-in-one Windows 10 machine. THANK YOU
there should be a warning about method #6 because safemode won’t work with an HDMI monitor. Now after changing the boot settings my computer is effectively stuck in safemode because it won’t recognize my HDMI monitor and there’s no way to change the boot settings without a monitor. Maybe I need an RGB cable?
It doesn’t matter the method you use to enter Safe Mode. Your problem is with Safe Mode in general. It sounds like you have some driver problems. We made this tutorial on a PC with an HDMI monitor. 0 problems!
So frustrated right now i cant get into my pc dell windows 10 when i enter my password the screen is black .i entered into safemode went into device manager tried to update the drive but it is saying cannot update in safemode.please help i dont know what to do from here .v
This forum saved me hundred dollars. I was frustrated that I could get to the start menu. I was searching the internet all night for a solution that was easy to follow then I came across this. Good job putting this together.
Take a look at the link : http://www.digitalcitizen.life/4-ways-boot-safe-mode-windows-10
Now take a look at the title of the site : 7 ways to boot into Safe Mode in Windows 10
Why is in the link saying that there are 4 ways, but on the site 7 ways.
Did you guys edited it until there were 7 ways?
i have a problem in graphics card so when i open the laptop (windows10) black screen appears all i can see the cursor so i want to start in safe mode before opening windows shift + f8 didn’t work for me
I’ve tried Shift, Shift+F8, ESC key, and disrupting boot up…nothing works! Can’t get the c-prompt either. What CAN I do to enter Safe Mode when these options DON’T WORK?
1. Please eliminate automatic updates; a friend showed me a ransom virus on her screen saying it was infected with a virus and she should call some 800 number or 888 etc; this was just “AFTER” the 4 JUNE 2018 auto update and she said it was the FIRST time she had ever seen that ? 2. Allow user so revert back to win 7 since it was a rock solid for most everyone. 3. Increase USER CONTROL not auto anything. FYI: Everyone” says Win10 is horrible; people don’t have time to get a phd in you your life work, just keep things the same ie win7 and make mods or tweaks to that instead of all new menu’s that are extremely frustrating. THANK YOU !
I updated my graphics card drivers and my monitor (Westinghouse LED TV) wouldn’t support the change. I tried doing this and it took me 20 minutes to get to the “Advanced Options” part…. then my mouse and keyboard stopped working. This is the darndest thing I’ve ever seen. Gonna try a new mouse but, i’m stumped. Next is to get a DVI cable, I guess, and hope i can trick the PC into thinking i have 2 monitors, and seeing if I can get the monitor to work that way.
Solution I tried is No. 6, interrupt Windows from booting, after 4th time you’ll be able to enter into Repair mode and do your things from there. That was a life saver man, thanks a bzillion!
It works with latest Win 10 April 2018 update issue when PC just gets stuck with black screen and cursor loading…very frustrating, but solution on this page to enter into repair mode and go back to previous version of Windows works like a charm. If you have the same issue and you can’t get that black screen off of your PC then this is the way to do it. Thanks!
If you use option 5 how do you reset it to boot normal and not safemode every time? For me the described option did not work. It is still stuck in a continual failing reboot cycle after having tried to install the latest update. Now it just goes to safemode for a split second then flips to the trying to restore windows screen and fails again. So how do i set the normal boot process back through the command prompt again?
Tried to post comment TWICE – these methods don’t work – and even the comment doesn’t post. It says “Captcha reuse attach detected”. Whaaa? There is no Captcha code to enter.
First 4 methods don’t work when OS doesn’t load, obviously.
Method #5 – recovery CD -> Command Prompt (assuming you HAVE a recovery CD) ->
“After your PC reboots, Windows 10 will automatically boot into Safe Mode” – no, it doesn’t go into Safe after reboot. It loops into BSOD again.
On my Gateway desktop PC, since Win 10 updates installed on March 14,2018 it does boot up, but will not prompt for sign-in and all USB ports seem disabled. I’ve tried as many ways as I can to boot into safe mode, but nothing is working, Please email me any additional suggestions. [email protected]
I couldn’t get any of the 7ways to get into safe,well half of them I can’t try because I can’t even get into the windows the screen because it goes blank do to unsupported resolution(and to be honest why would I need safe mode if I was all up in win 10 just to check out how slow it could go, I doubt it)! And the other couple ways DO NOT work , or are not a recognized command and the startup box is completely missing out of my advance option to be able to select startup with safe mode? WTF was I was thinking these are the reasons I left this platform after Vista! So my comment isnt the cheapest but does work 100% of the time look no further my other stumped and confused windows 10 users go down and buy yourself a piece of mind buy an APPLE! And none of the iOS will waste your time by locking you out of your machine ,and just think of all the extra time on your hands not wasted for hours on end trying to figure out the most idiotic commands hoping to steer your pc into safe mode, never mind the time spent reading and leaving comments! This is all time we don’t get back!!
Windows 10 Creators update stalls at 82% because my Gateway computer will not support it. When this happens the computer does not respond to any keyboard or mouse actions including Ctl-Alt-Del. I have to use the power switch and when it boots it restores previous windows version. I look in updates for the Creators update but it is gone with the reboot or restore. If I can HIDE that update ‘in theory’ this will not keep happening but I don’t know how to capture it. HEAVY SIGH. days lost as those who think they know better seize my computer.
I use Windows 10 and have been hung on updates for 8 days now, no other window appears besides the Lenovo, the wait and the restarting screens. I can’t start Windows in Safemode
I really appreciated the article after spending 20 or more hours trying to deal with the repercussions of the forced upgrade to 1709. Yeah fwiw I did a safe mode via mscofig, played with the associated scenarios incl setting as default, discovered (of course) the printer wouldn’t work. Restarted a couple of times > set boot to Normal mode and, gosh my fingers are crossed, start up is now seems a respectable minute or two vs constant disk activity that repeated forever. Could the Safe Mode have removed the gum from the works? Again, thanks for the very well presented alternatives – needed you 20 hours earlier!
Cannot get past the ‘Automatic Repair’ screen. PC hangs up there and then shuts off. Using a USB drive with Windows 10 install does not work. USB drive flashes for about 15-20 seconds, stops flashing, PC runs for 30 seconds or so, shuts off. I have tried everything I can find online (using other PC). I ran diagnostics and it found an error message that I have managed to see a few times – “No Diagnostic Utility Partition Identified. Press any key to reboot…” I press a key, PC shuts off after about 20 seconds. Any ideas? I did read the entire article, most is having a PC that you can boot up.
If you have only limited access to these options you can also just press shift when you select power-restart. And then choose safe mode thru options in the menu which appears
yes, Winblw$ 10 / 8 (and even the older 7 or XP) start faster than ever, but Micro$oft is cheating here again because it’s just showing the early startup screen shortly after booting the computer (and not always at that really!) …
but a full startup that is going to work flawlessly (if ever!) takes AT LEAST 5 minutes even on a fast machine! and if you’re going to do serious work without unexpected crashes, especially after new updates are installed or old programs uninstalled and removed with a restart following thereof and so on, you’ll have to wait AT LEAST 20 minutes before truly logging in or you may lose data or the system simply fail to work! Winblow$ is till slow as hell! (that wait time after upgrades sometimes takes up to 2 or more hours!)
Winblow$ 10 also cheats when shutting the computer down: turns the monitor off quickly but disk activity continues at least a few more seconds after that! go figure how they try to fool the old computer savvy users and professional IT people! 😀
If your computer isn’t working properly and you require safe mode then start the computer normally and select the various options for safe mode. Microsoft cannot be this incompetent, they are trolling us.
After the first half of a Windows 10 update last night, my PC wouldn’t boot. It would just flash the DELL logo. After a few failed attempts to boot is safe mode with F8 I read our description of Windows 10 booting too fast. So I held F8 down as I pressed the power button to try again. I don’t thing it booted in safe mode but I got a progress bar in addition to the DELL logo. It flashed several times but I kept on holding down F8 and after a while got the spinning dots (new version old the old hour glass mouse cursor) and eventually it finished the updates and let me log in. I don’t know if that will work for anyone else but holding F8 from the start seemed to work for me.
This new configuration is BAD. I’m an old tech that first built the XT 8086 than 8088, then AT’s when Seagate drives of 500 MB yes megabyte cost $700.00. BRING BACK DOS!!! Up to Windows 10 every thing work smoothly and techs did not have to learn a TOTALLY new way to repair systems and OS. Duh ,U cannot repair an issue with Virus, malware and just booting into the OS if you cannot go into the safeboot from the BIOS/ Startup.According to the new OS you have to boot into Windows 10 and go into MSconfig to then select the safemode. DUMB
OMG…..in the first paragraph you state “These methods stopped working because the start procedure became faster than ever before.” is such BS; there is noway in hell start up is faster. All of above is wonderful except for one thing…..I CANNOT GET IN TO WINDOWS 10 TO DO ANY OF THIS SHIT. How do you access safe mode from BIOS startup like we did in those great OS system windows XP and 7?
Maybe you should read ALL our article before saying that you cannot get into Safe Mode. That’s why we wrote it. To explain what Microsoft did and what you have to do differently, to access Safe Mode.
Thank you! I’m on page three of these comments, I’ve tried f8, f8 + shift, f2, f12… Your suggestion of f11 was the ONLY thing that brought my black screened computer back to life! Bless you!
Thank you so much – my Windows 10 update stalled (or at least I thought it stalled – it had been 4 hours since the update launched and it still was saying “This is taking longer than we thought…”) and I rebooted only to have it go horribly hinky. Your guide (particularly the shift + restart) did get me into the reset mode and I was able to get the computer back up. Windows then did its update overnight and all I have to do now is reinstall some apps. Thanks so much – this site was a lifesaver.
When I am trying to enter comment promote so I install win 10 bootable USB then start setup when reach to install there is not any button for repair your pc.i am not able to boot my pc help me
Thanks very much to Codrut Neagu for suggestion #6. I was locked out of windows because I rebooted after switching to minimal “start up” mode, and that deactivated my password screen upon rebooting… so no access to Windows 10, which has NO ability to enter Safe Mode, except Codrut Neagu”s suggestion #6 whch saved my sanity after all else failed. Once on Safe Mode, I reversed what I’d done, returning to full “start up” mode, which once again gives me my password screen to get into Windows! Whew! I had only gone to “minimal” start up to try to discover why I was getting an configuration error message, that another instance of (something?) is running, which error message first appeared upon rebooting after I’d I added a USB 3 card to my Dell Desktop. There’s no conflict listed for my still having USB 2 hooked up elsewhere at the same time, so I’ll just live with “OK”ing the error message when I reboot, since I can find nothing amiss.
Sounds like BS to me. If they wanted to make it work, all they have to do is check for an F8 keypress as the first instruction on bootup. “Boots too fast” is just an excuse.
The recovery drive I created did not give the option to changes startup settings, it gave the option to change uefi settings, ie boot to bios settings screen. Now how do you get it to boot to start mode?
I updated windows 10 and got a black screen with cursor so i tried safe mode. I was already in safe mode but the network wasnt working so restarted it. I needed the wifi to update the graphics drivers. So now i cant seen to boot into safe mode due to the missing startup settings. What should i do?
This is the second time in 2 weeks I have encountered the black screen with a blinking cursor in top left of screen. The first time it took me a few hours to repair, so this time I am documenting for myself and others to try help. My issue is on a Gateway FX PC. I have Deep Freeze Installed which prevents downloads and windows updates. The following is how I managed to fix:
1.) I press Alt + ctrl +Shift + delete to reboot
2.) after rebooting the Gateway logo appeared with small text at the bottom press to enter boot menu. I press to enter setup to enter boot menu.
3.) Press F12 From here you should be given the option to select boot device with up and down arrow keys then press Enter.
4.) Select second option. My first option was Generic ****
This should automatically boot and open windows.
5.) If not start at step 1.) when you get to step 4.) choose your third option.
As previously mentioned It happened to me twice so you should also change the Hard Disk Drive Priority, Boot options in the BIOS Setup Utility. Which I have now done second time around.
My pc was running very slow therefore I performed a windows reset with the option keep files and apps . My pc has 2 accounts . After the reset took place i logged in using one of the account and it did log in , so i went to start key and then selected to log into my other account . The screen went dark and then a different screen appeared with the default windows 10 background and three options in the lower right corner which were 1. A option which was ENG 2. Connectivity , it showed available wifi networks. 3. Ease of access .
And the pc is stuck in this particular screen ..
I am using a laptop so I pressed the power button and turned it off . After a while i again turned in on and it got stuck in the same screen ..
Please help me to solve this issue.
Windows message center popped “Click Here to Scan For Errors” (or something to that effect). So, yeah.. I clicked it and selected the offer to restart. Comp rebooted, startup screen said “Scanning Drive C: for errors” which displayed for about 10 seconds. Rebooted and started WDO and began scanning. At about 85-90% on the progress bar, comp rebooted and looped into this process. I left it to do it’s thing but no change. Later, I clicked the update tab in WDO, tried to update but it failed. Since then the loop persists WITHOUT WDO attempting to scan. Up until this started, my comp was running just fine. No indications of any problems whatsovever. My system is new (mid October 2016). Can I force Win10 out of WDO and into a normal boot mode?
If you can boot into windows in the first place chances are you don’t need to be in safe mode. If your file system or a driver is currupt your SOL. This is like driving your car to a gas station after you run out of gas. R.I.P Windows, MS should have left you @ Version 7, back before my PC looked like a hacked Xbox 360 with Office as a rental.
Steve Sinofsky’s comment, quoted in this article, stating, basically, that Windows 10 is “too fast” to allow for keyboard redirection during boot is ludicrous.
As if we don’t understand that Windows 10 – like any other operating system – is a PROGRAM, composed of lines of instructions.
The addition of additional lines of code, instructing the OS to wait for a few seconds, is all it would have taken.
To tout your failure to provide needed user amenities by claiming that the performance is so great that the physical laws of the Universe can’t be bent to accommodate users is .. well .. so Microsoft, in the fine tradition of ‘that’s not a bug … it’s a feature”.
These guys are so ready to prove how smart they are it is hilarious. People that can’t boot need to start in safe mode !.. So we search for ways online , only to find these “know it all” posts, that are meaningless unless you CAN ALREADY BOOT UP ! Totally useless information. anyone can find this information in settings, IF THEY CAN ALREADY BOOT UP!!! btw, great CAPTCHA. a commercial with no question to answer geezus you are so smart..
this article is well written,
However it doesn’t provide a solution to booting into safe mode where you don’t have access to windows 10, e.g. forgotten logon password. how can I do this?
Win 10 is the biggest mistake part from Win 8 and Vista wondering why Microsoft keeps rolling broke updates out just disable all updates from MICROSOFT no problems what so ever.
Thank you so much. The second method worked and I was able to log in and enter safe mode. I feared that I would loose all my data and would have to format my system(as the service center told) but all is fine now. I am feeling really happy about it and would like to thank you once again !
I recently had a video driver fail to install properly and got a black screen with only a mouse cursor after boot up. After some searching online (with my iPad) I learned that if you interrupt the boot process with the power button twice in a row, the third boot will take you to a recovery screen where you can select the troubleshoot option.
hey there i recently had similar problems i had win 10 installed few things werent were they suppose to be long story short made my computer in accessable would only boot to the blue screen with minimal options so i tried everything to recover what i did went over every step nothing worked … well couple nights ago i went onto the microsoft site they have a win 10 system iso (they have an option to download for another computer) so i downloaded it once it was downloaded i saved it to a folder in my desktop
next i went to rufus and downloaded the 2.8 portable version once that was done i open that insert a blank 8gb usb drive
in rufus up top it will have device-this will auto fill with the usb u insert
there are other options under this to fill but you can leave this it will auto fill it self with correct ones once u load with iso
next step is format options
go to create bootable disk using (make sure this box is checked ) click into it and find iso than beside that it has a cd type button click this and go to the folder where u have the iso you downloaded from microsoft click that
than click start it will do do what it has to that it will say finished or completed can take up to 10 mins
once its all done take the usb out and insert it into the computer you are having troubles with
turn the computer on and at startup hit esc (depending on computer) to get to startup options should have a few options to choose from one should be boot from device ?
click the usb u have inserted in and it should load up with win10 install
hope this helps it worked for my computer and havent had any problems since 🙂
For me restarting in safe mode only works when I let it start in normal mode and from login screen using -> (Shift key + Restart link under power options). Hope that helps someone!
This power cycle until it decides to enter recovery mode is PAINFULLY TEDIOUS. Microsoft totally f**** the pooch on this one. Clearly the only thing that Microsoft can be trusted to reliably do is consistently screw up procedures and features that were COMPLETELY FINE. Did anyone ever, for any reason, complain about having the ability to enter safe mode at startup?? What. The. F***
After I press ‘Advanced Options’ in safe mode, in place of ‘Startup Settings’ there is ‘UEFI Firmware Settings’. On clicking that, I am prompted to restart (to change the UEFI Firmware Settings). What should I do?
You would think that the “advanced” system of Windows 10 would SENSE the TIMING between ATTEMPTED boots and would automatically present the F8 screen when ….(5 reboots?) happen within 10 minutes. This is not rocket science people at Microsoft.
Mcafee is the problem. After Windows 10 update the screen became black and sometimes native Windows 10 blue color. After reading lot of posts I opened the task manager by pressing (ctlr+alt+del) and then un-installed Mcafee. After uninstallation and restart – my desktop came back 🙂
It’s pretty simple to get into the boot sequence of windows ten, it wasn’t working for me at first, so stumbled upon this page… after searching i got tired and messed around with it myself for a little bit, and from the login screen, i clicked the restart button at the bottom right corner, once the wheel of death starts spinning with restarting underneath it, i began pressing F2 and F12 at the sametime, and i got it at one try to get into setup utility… but you have to press these keys like 6x per seconds, that F2 receive 6 presses while F12 also receives the same, so i don’t know which one worked per se.
I have had the black screen with a blinking cursor on several occasions when Win 10 tried to update. I am on an old Lenovo box and discovered that an old school ctrl-alt-del took me to the Lenovo start up screen where I could press enter to avoid the automatic startup. Pressing F-11 then started Win 10 right up again. Not quickly as all the updates had to be installed, but reliably.
I had this problem with Windows 10 when I tried to update Kaspersky software which wasn’t compatible. I could not even boot back into windows. I fixed it by going to trouble shooting, advanced options then restore to earlier state which got me back into windows. Then uninstalled kaspersky and downloaded the compatible version and installed. This worked for me on my Asus laptop, hope it helps others who may have not tried this.
Hey, i just upgraded my laptop to windows 10 from 8.1 and now before logging in an error named kernel auto boost aquisition keeps restarting the pc. Please tell me what do i do now?
I have a Toshiba Satellite laptop, and I installed Window 10. Unfortunately, I need to update the drivers to get it to work, and when I tried to enter the Safe Mode with Networking by selecting Option 5 or F5, I could not get an Internet connection. How can I get the Safe Mode to allow me to use my Internet browser to find my Toshiba Drivers Update page?
Hi, my problem is that I am now stuck in Active Directory Repair version of safe mode on my Lenovo Helix ThinkPad… The kicker is that in the main Safe Boot screen I can open the on-screen keyboard and go to the Advanced Options (where you can still use the pointer), but after clicking “Restart” under ANY option you either have to type your password or choose options via number or function keys. The punchline here is: my keyboard dock doesn’t work, so I’m stuck with the touchscreen (system NOT set to default tablet mode before entering Safe Mode) and have no clue how to induce the on-screen keyboard after Advanced Options-> [any option]-> Restart. Help, please…!
FYI… Yes, there’s not F8/Safe Mode option, but there’s advance option to reset Win 10 and retain files…
** Reboot device… you can keep pressing F12 every second.. You device may boot asking to go into Bio and that is NOT where you want to go.. Hit ESC… Win 10 will now begin to load, you may now see a “Please Wait ” pop up as Win 10 try’s to boot.
**You’ll see a new blue window with options to Reset/repair Win 10, advance Options.. Choose this option and NOT Restart Win 10.
**Eventually you want to reset Win 10 with the option to retain your files or a clean install.. Your choice.
** Just let it reinstall and your good to go.
By the way if you have an Admin assigned to the device it will ask for the Admin password… SO be prepared
I’ve got my computer into save mode but I can open the magnify glass. So will any of these options work to proceed further and then get it back into normal mode?
I installed Windows 10 for free from Windows 8 about 8 days ago. Later, upon booting up the computer I was asked for the password. I entered it, but it would keep asking over and over for the password. I am 100% I entered the correct password. I then entered ‘another’ password. I got the message “wrong password entered”. I tried to boot up via a thumb drive but this didn’t work either….FINALLY I came across this forum. I hit the shift + restart button and was able to get to safe mode. I opted to uninstalled Window 10…back to Windows 8 I come…..this forum was very, very helpful!
Has anyone experienced a Windows 10 Upgrade from 7 64Bit Pro and all went well until I shut the machine down at the end of the day. A message appeared after the screen went black for shutdown and said. Interactive sign-in process initialization failed. Please check the event log for details. And no matter how many times you click on Ok or restart the same window appears. Tried all sorts of recoveries usually found in Win 7 with a no go? Any ideas?
I used Option #1 to get into Same Mode. NOW i CAN’T GET OUT OF IT! MSCONFIG won’t start in safe mode and every time I restart the computer it starts right back in Safe Mode. How do I get back to regular mode?!?!
Tacke out batery and unplag the ac. Press power buten for fue sec.. plag ac and batrery,press start … Go to setings and pres continue to win.10. That is the solution…
Well, my Windows 10 had the start menu and Cortana (I think that’s what its called) fail to launch. I could not figure out how to get it into safe mode. I recently updated it from Windows 7. It had been working fine until two days ago. I had to shut it down with the power button. Turn it back on and it would give me an error message that said that the start menu and cortana would not load. Sign off and windows will fix it. I did this over a dozen times and got the same thing over and over. I couldn’t figure out how to get it into safe mode like I used to do. So I had to bring it to a computer store so hopefully they can fix it at my expense when I might have been otherwise able to do a safe mode and a system restore. I had been OK with Windows 10 until now.
I have Windows 10 and it was working fine. Today i get the white screen. Totally locked up. Cannot get to safe mode. Tried all these suggestions, e.g. bootable USB, take battery our and hold power key, F8, Shift+F8,etc. Cannot get to the restart button to try Shift+Restart. Nothing. HELP!
You can do safe boot, etc. though administrative tools in the Control Panel, search the CP for boot. Click on System Configuration. Clic on boot. It is self explanatory. I am finding that on Windows 8.1 and 10, you can do most things through the control panel. To me, this is simpler and more straight forward.
I haven’t tried this with Windows 10 yet, but will over the weekend, thought I would put it out there.
I had the same issue on several PC’s running UEFI bios and SSD. (They were on Windows 7, but still the same issue) They were too fast to execute the F8.
In the BIOS, under the boot section (on mine anyway) there is a section entitled POST delay. I increased that value (on mine to 3 seconds) and that gave the time necessary to execute the F8.
I will test with a failed Windows 10 box, as soon as I get the PC.
OK, So the change I made (on an Asus mobo) delayed the POST and gave enough time to easily get into the BIOS. It did not help the F8 and may not be available on all PC’s.
What I ended up doing was to boot from CD using a Windows 7 Disc, which then let me get into some maintenance options, none of which worked of course. (Tried them all) However after doing that, followed by a forced shutdown, Windows 10 rebooted and offered me some new options.
From the advance features, I got to a Command prompt and enabled the F8 function using the command:
bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacy
(thanks to another website)
Rebooting let me get into Safemode and after cycling a couple of times through updates, all is well.
When you sign out of Windows 10 Technical Preview Build 10061 and return to the lock screen, you might see only a black screen with a responsive mouse cursor. Pressing the Alt+Tab keys or the Ctrl+Alt+Del keys has no visible effect.
Workaround
If you are experiencing this issue, follow these steps to sign into Windows:
At the black screen, press the Ctrl key once on an attached physical keyboard. (You won’t see any visible change, but pressing the Ctrl key will place the cursor in the password box that you’re currently not able to see.)
Now type the password of the user that just signed out and press Enter.This will sign you back into Windows and the desktop will appear.
If you failed to sign in because you mistyped the password, press Enter once more. Then retype the password and press Enter.” …
PLEASE NOTE: IF YOU ARE INSTALLING WINDOWS 10. AFTER ENTERING YOUR PASSWORD, THE CURSOR SHOULD VANISH FOR SEVERAL MINUTES WHILE WINDOWS COMPLETES THE INSTALL SETUP.
Add similar solution: Total 5 ways.
Start computer and hold power button until shut off. This triggers the auto repair and gets you to the (choose keyboard menu), mentioned above By Codrut Neagu on 06/10/2015
Totally agree. I’m an IT supporter, but have not used Win 10 much. Recently I installed Win 10 on a brand new Asus ROG gaming system, SSD, it boots extremely fast. Win 10 got stuck on updating an Nvidia driver and perfectly booted in black nothingness. Argh. Tried everything, nothing worked, black screen of death continued. Had no other Win 10 system near me to create a recovery drive. No reset button. So I had to use to most barbaric method and rip out the power cord during boot. Did that nearly 20 times, close to giving up – but suddenly this extremely fast system recognized that something was wrong – a blue screen of help emerged – and for the first time I could choose Safe Mode – and could fix the problem.
I’m sticking to Win 7 for now on my own system – PCs are not simple tablets, but have immense hardware variations, thus risk of problems are much higher – and therefore the need for sufficient repair options. With Win8 this may not have been noticed much, because many did not upgrade from Win 7 to 8. But with the massive upgrades from Win 7 to 10, I’m very curious how Microsoft will react to this very serious (and in my opinion completely unacceptable) Win 10 issue.
My windows 10 died yesterday. During boot up it shuts off the keyboard and mouse, and then displays the first screen with the date and time. I have an MSI gaming G series motherboard and I can log into the bios – so the keyboard and mouse work there. But as soon as I exit the bios the mouse and keyboard shut off. So what can I do?
i upgraded to 10 last weekend only to find the system would boot all the way to the desktop with no app shortcuts on the desktop…through the start menu you could activate any and all apps however they would all operate only in the background…
called microsoft “technical” support, the indians first request was to access my system – impossible for a start since i could not access any network settings to allow it and secondly only a moron would allow a subcontracted company from the 3rd world access to their system
they emailed me instructions which “may” help get the system going, all of the instruction required me to boot into the system and then, you guessed it, activate applications and manipulate them!
in the end i had to resort to booting to the desktop multiple times and switching it off at the wall until it crashed, not a method i would recommend as you risk damaging your motherboard
i have reset the system back to the original win 10 installation and will roll it back to win 8 this weekend… it is not worth the headaches
After running ok for weeks my system couldn’t find the boot drive and after some changes in the BIOS I am getting “Fixing Hard Drive” and it just sits there at 1% and nothing happens! I have tried Safe Boot and selected Roll Back but it didn’t work either!
I have a crashed Windows 7 laptop, just spent hours trying to fix it. Windows 7 repair disk won’t do anything, and neither will the Windows 10 install USB that I created. On the Windows 7 computer, I accessed safe mode and the command prompt through Advanced Options. Did a complete chkdsk /f /r D: , which showed a couple of bad clusters, but said that there wasn’t enough room on the disk to replace them…even though the report said that there was space. Rebooted…same problem, sometimes stuck in Diagnosis cycle, sometimes able to log in, get desktop, but can’t open anything. Keep getting BAD_SYSTEM_CONFIG_INFO error message! I upgraded on my Windows 8.1 without any problems so far. But I want to use my older computer too! If I get to the SAFE MODE, what do I do then?
Lamdows 10 was not Ready for the World yet. Downgrade back to Win 7 or 8 for another 10 more years until a new true successor comes out. Seriously it is a unstable platform. And yet it already got hack. Typical trash. DX12 is not gonna be standardlize if most peeps is already diverting back to older windows. They can give a rat ass about it for this unreliable unstable O.S.’es.. They need to fire who ever made this crap..
Microsoft should not provide a free product that crashes your computer. After decades of them being in the software business it’s striking that so many if us can’t even start out computers after thus update . Most people would have to take the computer into to shop for a fix. Microsoft should be ashamed and bury they’re heads in the sand!
Fortunately, when I tried to hold the BIOS reset sequence, and missed it, a few times, the OS (which tried to boot but was stucking in black screen) discovered that something is wrong (due to my constant shouting down the PC) and run the diagnostic tool which bypassed the failure point and gave me some choices.
I chose to reset the whole PC deleting all the apps and keeping my data.
It worked although I had to reinstall all my software.
Nothing was working for me until I found some advice on a different thread:
Turn it off, remove the battery, unplug the laptop from its power source, leave it off a few minutes, hold down the power button for 5-10 seconds, plug power back in BUT NOT THE BATTERY, turn on laptop. It should start normally. Then put battery back in at your earliest convenience.
i installed windows 10 and get 100% progress. when my windows restart and show windows logo an after waiting icon my screen off and on and show waiting icon again and goes to loop an show waiting progress again and again an screen off and repeat!! what can i do?
I had same problem. I turned of my screen resolution to the lowest before I left, to save energy. So screen turned off basically. Then when I came back after an hour i could not increase the screen resolution. just black screen. I started to boot up again but again black screen after welcome screen, however i could see mouse pointer. I could turned on computer on safe mode, but again when i restarted i got black screen again.
THEN WHEN I UNPLUGGED THE POWER CABLE, MAGIC HAPPENED SCREEN CAME BACK :)) i tried again plug power cable, screen get blacked, tried again plugging the power cable screen came back.
So you might try to unplug your power cable. It solved my problem.
I couldn’t get the f8 to work for me. I wore out my index finger trying. But I did have another way to get the advanced options menu. This mother board I bought in 2010 to replace a melted Dell allows for a couple of options before it boots the os, hit delete to enter setup is the one, which goes to the bios options and one is hit F8 to QFlash. So then I hit reset and restarted and it booted with the “please wait” message and let me into advanced recovery and “go back to previous build”. Not sure how long it should take but for an hour now it’s been on”go back to previous build”, “restarting” with the little dots rolling in a circle. I might be stuck in a temporal causality loop.
I can’t get past the “Welcome Back Dave” screen. Enter the correct password, stuck, crash, restart. I want to go back to windows 7. I was happy with it. Why did I fall for 10???
Because Dave, like the rest of us, you thought it would be better. But, like the rest of us, you were wrong. Now we are stuck with this pos and have to figure out how to fix it. Coincidentally – we are in the exact same position you are in, right now. But I will figure it out, some way – shape – form – or another and will post the answer here. Working on it now.
Ok, Finally got a solution to go back to Windows 7. I was able to get the computer to accept an F8 key after a few restarts. I had tried to just holding it down, and that didn’t work, so then I tried pressing it very, very fast the second it started to boot and I must have done it right because as soon as the windows icon appeared I saw words appear with it “Please Wait” and low and behold I got the wonderful screen with options to appear. From there I selected “Troubleshooting”, Then I selected “Go back to previous build” and now it is reversing the update and going back to Windows 7.
Once it is back to windows 7, I will make sure I have EVERY update installed first this time and then try again… if I get the same results, then I will do the same thing and revert back to its previous build, again, but I won’t upgrade to 10 until they get it fixed the right way.
Hope this helps someone. FYI my computer specs are as follows (from what I can recall from looking at them a few minutes ago, I didn’t write it down and it is an older computer)
CPU 2.6 g
Memory 16g
SATA HD 1TB
yr made 2009, gateway, purchased – no idea, I got it a year ago from family – it had a virus on it and they thought it was garbage. That is how I get all my Windows based computers.
Bus speed – can’t remember
GPU – offboard, can’t remember stats
other than that, it is whatever it came with when purchased. I have not upgraded anything to it, yet. Gave it to my son (18yr old) as a gamer computer because it can be upgraded to full gamer capabilities.
When I use option 2 (restart holding the shift key down) and get to Advanced Options I find that option 5 Startup Settings is missing? Its this option that would otherwise let you select a start up in safe mode. So I don’t believe option 2 actually lets you boot into safe mode!
Similar problem here. I installed Windows 10 with no problems about a week ago but there has been a succession of minor issues ever since. Yesterday my AMD graphics driver was updated on the HP Support utility recommendation, after which I lost sound and everything became unstable. Tried to do a restart and the PC crashed to a blue screen saying “restarting” with the swirly thing. Needless to say the PC didn’t restart and switching off had no effect; each time I switched on again it was the same screen. However, removing the power cord as suggested here a few times together with some pressing of F8 did eventually bring up the recovery menu (maybe the menu would have appeared anyway). The PC would not respond to the ‘recovery’ option so I moved on to the ‘reset’ option and followed the recommendation to backup files to an external drive. This failed after cataloging all the files despite there being plenty of spare hard disc capacity. Whatever the next option was, I just blindly accepted it and eventually it progressed to restarting the PC, doing lots of updates in the process. Took ages but eventually everything restarted normally. The HP Support utility offered me another AMD driver update which so far I have declined. What a nightmare!
Yes yes yes this worked for me …. Hallelujah!!!! Thank you!!!! I had an update for my display drivers and it backed my screen with that dreadful spinning busy mouse.. But I finally got to the advanced options by unplugging it the three times. Thank you so so much!
my starting page in win10 says administrator and then Your account has been disabled . Please see system administrator. What can I do to restore this account? I am the system administrator myself. Thanks.
Lol! OSX on Macs boot even faster than Windows 10 and there’s different keys you can hold (not hit repetitively like a monkey) to boot into different modes.
Microsoft just doesn’t have the knowledge to do it but they won’t admit it. Stop the bullshit Microsoft!
Installed win 10 and crashed after a few days on my Samsung laptop. Continually loads Aptio setup utility. Cannot change settings and get to safe mode and load last configuration. Any ideas? Thanks.
I installed Windows 10 and I got to the point where you choose the language of your keyboard. But at this point either mouse or keyboard don’t let me select the option. What shall I do now.
Hey Guys,
Yesterday I installed a Geforce Driver from the Geforce Experience, called Geforce Windows 10, to work ideally with Windows 10 that I had already installed and had no issus with it. However, in the middle of the installation the screen goes black and shows the mouse cursor, permanently rotation (the little loading circle). This went on for a while until I turned the pc of and went to sleep. Next morning, no matter what I do, the black screen is still there and all attempts of getting to safe mode have failed. I have an SSD and it doesn’t recognise any keys during the boot up and goes straight into the black screen each time I restart it. Do I have to remove the graphics card or is there an option left to do this with software fixes? Any help would be much appreciated!
Philipp
Edit: I fixed the issue. Using 2 tips from a friend I was able to restart and fnish the computer without going into the safe mode.
1) When the computer restarts, the instant the BIOS pops up, showing the logo of the hardware etc. I was able to press F12 and that brought me to the BIOS. There I clicked the 3rd option that said something along the lines of “Fix issues” or “Resolve problems” something like that (dont remember as I was excited and anxious to get it fixed again :P). Then the screen went from pink into blue and it configurated the updates, I presume the ones I had started the previous night and then everything worked fine from there.
2) By pulling the power plug of the computer and restarting it 3-4 times that brings up the Safe mode automatically because the computer detects and issue upon the boot up failing over and over.
This was a real pain in the neck and I hope one of the tips works for you so you can resolve your own issue.
Good luck!
If your problems (printing, creating PDFs, and getting the swirly ball with “not responding”) with Windows 10, prompts you to try resetting, but receive an error message that it is unable to reset because something is missing, should you attempt to reset in safe boot mode?
Same issue will not BOOT, screen flickers, no keyboard or mouse. PC worked fine on win7, then went to shit after FREE Upgrade. SHAME ON YOU MICROSOFT!!!! YOU JUST CRASHED MY UNIT!!!
I also had trouble getting into safe mode, having UEFI and an SSD drive.
HOWEVER, I pressed and hold Shift+F8, got a prompt from the BIOS.
While keeping shift+f8 pressed, I went through the prompt, and then safe mode appeared! 🙂
Successful install but as it apparently pulled in the latest update during the install process, my machine now is stuck in a reboot cycle each time I log in. And as stated above, no way to start in safe mode. MS does not even apparently give a choice during upgrade of turning off auto upgrade (upgrade from win 7 64 pro). Expected as much. Ms pushed it out the door too quickly. Customer tests the product after release. Glad I didn’t upgrade my main machine. Will probably upgrade my win 10 machine back to vista. At least I never had a vista install fail. Vista was just a resource pig but at least was stable (for me anyway)
F8 is disabled by default.
To enable open elevated cmd.
bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacy
Reboot
Tadaa! F8 is back.
bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy standard to disable it again.
No, it’s not disabled, per se´ it is just that the new OS boots so fast and the new hard drives are so fast that they don’t even recognize that a key is pressed, unless you have an older, legacy system.
That is why it isn’t working to get into safe mode upon start up in most computers that are newer than 2013 models.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!,, I installed Win10 and my computer has been locked up for 3 days. I tried everything to get to boot up. Your shift-restart worked!
I have similar situation. After window 10 upgrade, my monitor screen was flickering. I tried for safe mode but can’t get. After restart, I can go to Bios setup but not on safe mode even if I press F8. I am using Lenovo ThinkCentre Edge 71. On the reboot I can see window logo in booting process and after then small flicker on the screen and than permanent blue screen. Key board and mouse remains inactive. If I push power button again, it turns off the CPU. If I start by power button, the process remain as it is and window never boot up complete. Anu suggestions.
Ok I got to burn a windows system repair disk
On a working version of 10 used it on my windows 7 update which was in a loop as others have no fun at all so it gave me some options but I went for the reset windows keep personal files after this step it’s not in a loop but keyboard and mouse are not working so maybe updating and won’t give me access till done oh tried all other ways could not get safe mode ect or create recovery media oh and I had to disconnect drive to get into bios to boot from DVD hope this may help a little
I
Just spent a couple of hours trying to help a friend with windows 10 black screen. Eventually identified screen driver issue. But having to get into safe mode by interrupting boot and then using the advanced options. Ended up causing a corrupt boot sector. Microsoft short cutting again! Hal’s suggestion easy to implement for Microsoft if they had any foresight.
In IT support this is a real nightmare since we can’t easily fix issues people are suffering from on new devices as practically every new Windows computing device have been UEFI since about 2012. How hard would it have been for Microsoft to acknowledge holding down a button to bring you to the menu? They’ve more or less glorified the useless ‘wipe and restore’ mentality that less skilled repair folks engage in when a simple safe mode & adjustments could easily fix problems.
None of the above seems to work, at all. I’m constantly seeing diagnose problems screen, I get the cursor, C+A+D doesnt do anything, and if by a miracle I get to the Startup Settings in Step Two (don’t ask me how I have no clue), it merely restarts and sends me back to Diagnosing your PC hell. Thanks MicroSoft.
I just upgraded 8/4/15. All was going fairly well with only a couple of application issues I fixed. Day 3, at some point some updates were applied. Day 5, my screen lock shows with a network icon in the lower right and responds to Crtl+Alt+Delete but then no login prompt appears. Only the background graphic is visible with the network, handicap, and power icons in the lower right. I tried typing my username and password in the blind but that did nothing, nor did restart and power cycles.
I found that to enter “safe” mode you must now hold the shift key while you click the power icon. I’d created a system restore point just after the upgrade but using it *failed* and it stated it was reverting back.
Curiously on restart though, it presented “Getting Windows Ready, Do Not Turn Off your Computer” as it rebooted. Then it said “Working on updates, 100%, Do not Turn Off Your Computer”. That was followed by the same message except starting 15% until complete. Who knew, right?
I continued waiting for about 20 minutes and it said “Restarting” and rebooted.
Again it presented “Getting Windows Ready” and “Working on Updates” sequences. Finally 10 min later my screen saver has returned with C+A+D and now it let me log in. It’s back but oddly now displays that “System Restore completed successfully” and has the proper date.
I’d like to call this success but since I’ve no idea WTF happened or how it solved itself (we’ll with my help), so I will leave it to someone here to answer.
PS. I suspect that my issue may be Nvidia related since I do not see an updated driver for my GeForce 8600 GT listed. It may have tried to update the latest regardless, though I’m not finding specific evidence in the Event Viewer.
That said I decided to stop allowing Updates to be installed automatically. I checked out and installed Microsoft KB3073930 which lets me hide or show hidden updates (wushowhide.diagcab).
If anyone comes across the the last two hours of my life spent chasing this, please put it to good use.
Hiya. Im having the same problem right now.
Dont know what is going on. A roll back probably helps always but doesnt tell me what would have gone wrong, just like you said. Still dont understand why windows keeps putting stuff on the market that is not ready yet. Windows 10 works but the safemode sucks. This is the second time im trying to get in. The first time worked but to get out wasnt without issues. But this is just not acceptable anymore and am completely stupified.
Hiya. Im having the same problem right now.
Dont know what is going on. A roll back probably helps always but doesnt tell me what would have gone wrong, just like you said. Still dont understand why windows keeps putting stuff on the market that is not ready yet. Windows 10 works but the safemode sucks. This is the second time im trying to get in. The first time worked but to get out wasnt without issues. But this is just not acceptable anymore and am completely stupified. Edit:http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/292753-turn-off-safe-mode-boot-command-line.html if you follow the link the guy mentioned in this link. You can solve this problem through command prompt. It worked for me. And got in to safemode again. I told msconfig to boot into registry solving or something. I didnt know what it was for and tried it. But when doing so the login window does not appear indeed. I have no clue what this registry thing does. If anyone knows… greets.
Installed Windows 10 and love it to be honest. However, when I installed the Radeon drivers using the “automatic” method, the system rebooted and went to total black screen.
Finally shut it down during start up and on the 4th try the Windows 10 started a diagnostic that allowed me to reset my restore point. Come to find out it was the video settings/drivers that screwed it up.
Second attempt on Windows 10, still got Blue Screen of Death, after a minute of boot up. Tried the option above I mentioned about Ending the Process on Catalyst in Task Manager, which stopped it rebooting. Yay. Then went onto the laptop’s manufacturer to download latest video card driver, installed, machine no longer reboots 🙂
we are having the exact same problem, Wade. Have you found a solution for this problem yet? Besides picking up the computer and throwing it out the window?
I have since read that some people have had some success on Windows10 with installations where it goes into the blue screen loop. They let is boot up and login, then as quick as they can, get into Task Manager and do End Process on the two AMD’s Catalyst processes in the Processes tab. Then their machines don’t Blue Screen after 60 seconds, and they are able to update their Graphics drivers in device manager to the latest, and it gets them stable again. Hope this works for some people, I gave up and went back to Windows 8.1
Can’t you just start into safe mode (shift + restart in these 60sec) and then remove the driver via device manager ? I got nvidia and this way it worked for me… I only had had about 15sec to do so… So can’t try for amd…
Trying to make a recovery drive. Get message: “We can’t create a recovery drive on this PC” “Some required files are missing…yada yada…” So if a newly installed device driver or software bluescreens the PC before getting to the start screen, I have to reset/reinstall windows instead of just removing that 1 item? WTF?
Another little bit barbarian way on PC with not the fastest SSD: you push the Reset button during startup (as soon as the windows logo shows up), and next time you are offered for troubleshooting. Than you make your way to safe mode for example.
Hi. I dont know if it work for all MBs but on my MSI Gaming 7 still work under all OS pulling out the power cabel on OS load screen. After that pc should go directly into safe mode. ( for me without keyboard and it is fast enought for ssd too 🙂 )
It also works for most notebooks just pull out the battery in the same time like on the Pc..
This article proved invaluable… I finished a Win10 stall and my AVG prompted to update. I updated and from that point on, I kept getting this error (avgcsrvx.exe) it would just keep popping up and various things would happen preventing the OS from completely coming up (some icons, partial taskbar and this error message popping up, erratic mouse, slow…). I figured if I could get to safe mode I could delete AVG and at least get back on track.
I had been able to get to the login screen and from there held the Shift and clicked the restart. It didn’t work the first time but about the third attempt it worked. I uninstalled AVG and did a restart. Thanks!!!
For me, it didn’t work either on first try, I also needed a second… But I had a problem with my GPU driver, I became a bluescreen after logging in when the driver has loaded (about 15 sec)..
Microsoft Security Essentials cannot be installed in Windows 8, 8.1 or 10. It has been stopped after Windows 7. You can use Windows Defender, which is pre-installed in the system other than that you cannot use it. It is no more compatible. There are other securities which can be used and is better than AVG.
AVG free has a much much higher detection rate than MSE. I used to install MSE on customer computers and a few of them got plenty of malware and a few viruses. Installing AVG caught everything
I’ve done custom installs of it without the identify theft crap or the email crap (only applies to pop3/imap retrieval) and it works pretty well. It’s never seemed to slow down as much as mcafee/norton at all. MSE/Defender is indeed faster, but I’ve found it catches less. This is from cases of finding computers with MSE that has viruses, and AVG caught them once I installed it. They were not false detections, but I have seen a few of those too but usually AVG is like ‘unsure’, and it doesn’t automatically get rid of it if it thinks it’s a false detection
I also like Malware Bytes as just a scanner, it catches a few things neither AVG or MSE catches
I suggest people don’t use AVG anymore. Recently, I read an article, I almost forgot where it came from, but in their terms and agreement, they told that they will sell our data that AVG collected from our computer, that’s the price of a free software!
This has caused me major problems with the latest Windows 10 upgrade.
As the upgrade installer progressed through but gave blue screen of death at the end. Likely caused by a Driver issue.
In the past I would have gone into safe mode to start diagnostics.
Now I get the blue screen error every time I try to boot windows.
Without being able to start Windows, I cannot use option 1 to get into Safe Mode using msconfig.
I can’t use option 2, as I cant start windows, to select Shift+Restart.
Because the upgrade was done using the automatic windows update, I don’t have a media to try option 3 starting from a recovery media.
Plus with a fast start up speed, option 4 (the F8 method) doesn’t work.
Does anyone have a further method to get into Safe Mode?
I have total black screen and can’t do or select anything after I turn on my computer. All I can see is the mouse cursor. I made a recovery drive from another Windows PC. How do I activate this drive if I can’t do/see anything on my black screen?
This means that the desktop has failed to load. If you press CTRL-ALT-DEL you should be able to start the task manager. From there you can select the File tab and then New Task to run msconfig (or any other program for that matter).
Thank you so much! I got a blue screen of death a few minutes after upgrading to 10 and had no idea what to do until I read your comment. CTRL-ALT-DEL brought back my desktop. Yay!
make sure you have nothing plugged into your computer,I built a new computer andif i have a flash drive plugged in i get the flashing cursor in the top left corner,it took me a few minutes to workout what the problem was
On the black screen with cursor press CTRL+ALT+DEL then in the bottom right corner click the power icon then press and hold SHIFT key while clicking on restart.
These guys are too busy showing how smart they are to solve this problem. Notice the “fixes” only work if your computer already boots up.. in other words, only those that don’t need the fix can use the fix..
You’re absolutely right. I’ve been stuck on this Windows repair screen all night and can’t figure out how to access any of that crap. If I was, I wouldn’t be stuck on the stupid Windows repair screen!
I realise this thread is old, but I’d like to help the poor soul who gets stuck. @Tom, that’s neither a kind nor a smart remark. Of course, when the bootloader is broken, you cannot go into safe mode either. That’s not a shortcoming of this article or these comments. Safe mode is designed to solve all kinds of problems, i.e. with drivers, but if startup is “broken” safe mode cannot help.
As long as the bootloader is okay, shutting down the PC three times is a failsafe way to get to the Troubleshooting Options and hence the Startup modes.
That’s an unacceptable solution. I don’t have a way to do that. I’ve been restarting my computer repeatedly for the last several hours. My only other option is my Android cell phone, which isn’t going to let me create a boot disk for my Windows 10 upgrade. I’m disabled, and I depend on my computer for nearly everything I do. This is a serious problem for me. I should never have upgraded. I cannot lose my apps, because I depend on them, and some cannot be reinstalled, such as my scanner driver and my adobe software that tells me that permanent license to use acrobat has “expired,” while not providing any working links to access support.
Since Windows 10 cannot be relied upon to boot correctly, it MUST provide a means to reach safe mode during the boy process.
I am having the same exact problem, you can get to the start up settings screen options by power cycling a few times once the first windows logo comes up after reboot. You may have to try up to 5 times but you should enter recovery mode, that page will give you the error code and you can hit F8 on it to get to the various startup settings including safe mode. Unfortunately I can’t get into safe mode either. Trying other options.
I am having this same issue. Except now, after I have tried all other options it starts up and … fails then goes to a different blue error screen that states” NFTS_FILE_SYSTEM” Reboots on it’s own, then I get stuck at “Choose your keyboard layout.” Rendering my mouse and keyboard inactive and I cannot get out of it.
FYI… Yes, there’s not F8/Safe Mode option, but there’s advance option to reset Win 10 and retain files…
** Reboot device… you can keep pressing F12 every second.. You device may boot asking to go into Bio and that is NOT where you want to go.. Hit ESC… Win 10 will now begin to load, you may now see a “Please Wait ” pop up as Win 10 try’s to boot.
**You’ll see a new blue window with options to Reset/repair Win 10, advance Options.. Choose this option and NOT Restart Win 10.
**Eventually you want to reset Win 10 with the option to retain your files or a clean install.. Your choice.
** Just let it reinstall and your good to go.
By the way if you have an Admin assigned to the device it will ask for the Admin password… SO be prepared
Thanks man thank you very much cause this fucking lap have bios boot option and windows fail to boot and no f8 working finaly this works thanks again dude
As an alternative to digging out a recovery disk, interrupt the startup by powering the computer off when the manufacturers logo or Windows logo is being displayed. Repeat this 3 times, you should then see “loading” appear beneath the logo, at this point allow the computer to continue booting and you will then have the option to try various recovery methods including Safe Mode.
I tried everything to get my Windows 10 into safety mode (like F8, shift F8 etc) nothing worked. But this solution actually works. I even contact McAfee since my probs started after an update of their software… many Thanks, my laptop is up & running now.
Chris, I have a Dell 7510 on it you have to wait not just when the Logo is displayed but once it starts to load then shut down I only had to due this twice, from there I was able to follow the menus to get into Safe Mode. Thanks
I had exactly the same problem. Then I read on Asus (https://www.asus.com/support/faq/1013074/) that after a few consecutive boot failures Windows 10 will display a start up screen that will give you a chance to boot in safe mode (and many other options). Though I have an HP laptop it worked as expected. After maybe 4 or 5 (power on, boot fail, power off), Windows came out with the screen shown in Asus Web site. Then I booted in safe mode. Later I rebooted in normal mode and, a miracle happened, this time Windows booted well…
They didn’t mention the last method: while the Windows is booting, you have to reset your PC if you have a dedicated button for that. You should do this about 3 times. Then Windows checks for errors, wait, then the advanced boot menu opens. I hope this helps!
287 Responses to “How to boot Windows 10 in Safe Mode”
None worked. Unfortunately all the developers and IT gurus forgot a little thing when taking out the boot to safe mode… What happens when you have a video output to monitor issue because of an update. Oops. You can’t get to the login screen or other prompts when you CAN’T SEE THEM. Not everyone buys the latest and greatest hardware. Boot to safe mode helps you uninstall unstable updates/patches that throw a wrench into things like that and need to be removed to restore the system. IT REALLY needs to learn folks don’t usually get new hardware until the old one breaks, not just because it’s new or the computer wants a new one because of an update.
This is a very valid perspective. Thank you for sharing it.
I tried all of the safemode methods and i can’t get it to work because i’m stuck in the infinite boot loop. It reboots too fast to hold restart for 10 seconds. I’m able to get to the boot menu but it restarts as i’m in the boot menu. I can even click on the usb file install media I have on a thumb drive, but it still restarts.
None of these methods worked for me. Have not done a reinstall Dell Alienware Aurora r 7 hanging at windows logo. Suspect Microsoft driver verify is messing up.
Hey so a family member I’m living with had an old desktop lying around that they said I could use if I wanted. So I booted it up and found a password protected user of an uncle that’s since left the picture. I have tried everything, including most of the things on this list, that are at my disposal. I don’t have anything like an installation disk or such. But I cannot seem to get safe mode to work, (and I’ve got my way into any other computer that I have tried over the years). For example when I shift restart from the login screen, it only gives one option : shut down. F8 and shift F8 do not work. The advanced boot menu (F12) and bios menu (del) in the startup are also password protected so I can’t get through that either. I’ve tried hours sifting through the command prompt, even trying to alter the users, I’ve added users to the administrators, and nothing happens. If there is any advice to get past all this, then I would greatly appreciate it. They family who is letting me use the pc said they would like the data stored on it like pictures so I’d like to help them out and find a way in. Please
None of those options works.
On start-up I have a home screen and a nice picture — nothing else (i.e. no log-in box).
The home screen does not have a start button.
Switching the computer on and off several times does not enter Safe Mode.
I have a recovery disk, but the computer does not recognize it.
I think I will save up for an Apple computer…
I’m very fortunate that I don’t have any problems that many of the above people have.
However, I can suggest a couple of things to do that may make life easier in the future.
Someone suggested an option to slow down the boot so that the troubleshooting menus could be selected during boot. It’s easy to do. There are a few web sites that suggest how to do it. Here is one that actually puts Safe Mode up as an option on every boot with a wait time of your choice. https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/17159-add-safe-mode-boot-options-windows-10-a.html
The other thing I have done on all of my machines is create 3 desktop shortcut icons for booting into the UEFI, Advanced Boot Menu, and Restart the PC. The command for each of these desktop icons is just a variation on the Shutdown command. You can make your own icons and include one of the following commands in each one.
UEFI C:\Windows\System32\shutdown.exe /r /fw /f /t 0
Advanced Boot C:\Windows\System32\shutdown.exe /r /o /f /t 0
Restart C:\Windows\System32\shutdown.exe /r /f /t 0
UEFI and Restart are obvious but Advanced Boot allows you to select the menu options as detailed in the original article. These icons allow you to do these things without having to think too much.
You might notice that each command has a “/f /t 0” on the end of it. These are not necessary to do each function but just speed up the process. The /f overrides any problems like apps that won’t shutdown and the /t 0 (note the space between the /t and the zero) means do it now without waiting.
The Shutdown command has many options and you might find some of the other options useful. For example, you may want to shutdown or restart a remote machine. Open a Command window and type in shutdown.exe /? to see all of the options. You might also get a headache figuring out what it all means but have a look.
Thanks for sharing all this info. We might write an article on the topic. Appreciate!
Press “Esc” then “F11” during bootup
Hi
what stands for {default}. I’ve tried writing windows or windows 10 and it didn’t work
it also starts with x:sources and not with x: windows?
should it be all the os build key?
Thanks
I prefer the “msconfig.exe” process cuz it’s a bit easier!
We tried to boot our windows 10 64-bit computer and got a blue screen with a stop code: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. Not sure what it means but there’s a good chance the computer may have gotten hung up on an update. It tried to do an auto repair, the status progressed to 100%, then re-booted, re-booted again and got the same screen but no progress on the status. Then it freezes.
I made a Windows 10 bootable thumb drive and inserted it to try method #3. But instead of getting a command prompt with “X:windowssystem32>” I’m getting “X:Sources>”
I typed in bcdedit /set {default} safeboot minimal and got the expected response. Closed the command box and selected exit and continue to windows.
The computer begins a normal boot but then goes back into the windows setup box. What am I doing wrong? If I remove the thumb drive after the screen goes blank it repeats the automatic repair process.
anything is useful to enter the correct mode, if you get a blue screen and only the icon turns off your worker. I have Windows 10 for the 1909 version.
Last method
not much help when the wretched Windows 10 starts to boot runs the annoying never ending wheel then. drops out and re boot..a x does this repeatedly getting nowwhere Beyond doubt Windows 10 is the most abymal time waSting version of Windows since the ghastly Windows ME. Taking away the easy safe start up option is about the dumbest thing Microsoft have done since the notiorious.bios error message.. Error booting no keyboard found press any key to continue
Where is the restarts key on the keyboard? Useless tutorial….
is this in how to install a new version of windows?
i mean will it wipe out everything??or what exactly??!!!!
There must be a way of doing this through a bat file or similar, the All In One Windows Repair utility from Bleeping Computer has a button that allows you restart the PC in Safe Mode.
Context: One day I just went to go on my computer (I have not used it in months until I got on that day) I turned it on Black screen and the mouse and keyboard were not working also I have no media. So can you help me with that?
Great info, thanks!
Gary
I’m new to Windows 10 Pro, but it appears (from what I read in the various “tech help” articles and on MS tech pages as well) that Microsoft has bestowed upon us another lame situation in Windows 10 – MS seems to be very good at “improving” simple processes and turning them into obscure ones. While a faster boot time than in previous versions is certainly welcome, why not put a 3-second delay at the beginning of the boot process so that a user can tap an appropriate function key to access the “old” boot menu (with multiple Safe Modes) or to access BIOS? Accessing both of these functions seems now to be very kludgy.
However, not to “shoot the messenger”…thank you for your informative article.
I am stuck in the update loop and also unable to go to the recovery mode what should I do
Thanks !!!!!
Thank You for your really detailed guide. It helped me a lot! 😉
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I had that issue cloning a smaller see drive to a bigger and then trying to boot the new ssd drive. Turns out the bios settings had been altered because it was a different drive plugged in at the spot of the original drive and the boot drive it picked up by default had some old version of Windows that could not recognize my display. Once I fixed the bios boot settings, it worked. Just spent an hour working for nothing.
Updated Windows 10 on older Dell pc and now have totally black screen w/o cursor. Windows 10 had been running fine on this for some time. Have tried interrupting restart and it seems to have gone into troubleshooting mode but my screen is still black but with an occasional blip of what looks like the first troubleshoot screen. The keyboard restart of the monitor doesn’t do anything. Have tried restart many times. Need Safe Mode. Suggestions?
I prefer to enable advanced boot options in Windows 10 in case i can’t get to welcome screen login and need to go into safe mode. ^_^
Useful article, thanks a lot!!!
You made it so simple. Thank you so much for saving me days of work and possibility not resolving the problem. Your time and effort is much appreciated.
Well done
None of these worked. I guess it’s dead.
Yes the Shift + F8 suggestion got me back into this PC!
Thank you so much, I had an issue whereby changing the password on the local admin caused the Windows device to load up into a black screen with the cursor and narrator functions still fully accessible.
This article helped big time.
Thanks! The bcdedit option saved me, the rest weren’t working. Really appreciate the help!
Non of the methods have worked. When the only thing you get on your screen is the error message!
I used the SHIFT-restart method from the sign-in screen and it worked fine. I tested for a problem; no paste to Libre Writer, but no problem in safe mode, which supposedly means a program or service is interfering in normal mode. And now, strangely but happily, the problem is gone in normal mode without doing anything other than starting in safe mode and testing. How can this be? (I know, just don’t question it!)
What if None of those work?
This How To needs a serious update (as of Mar 2019) because there is no longer ‘Reset’ option under ‘Advanced options’.
Hello, I tried entering safe mode with msconfig, chose safe mode, hit apply, ok and then restarted my computer. Now it will no longer connect to my screen and my computer is completely useless. I have tried everything I could find online, but as I can’t see anything and it seems like it wont find my screen or something, I have no idea what else to do. Please help. I have tried hard rebooting several times, mashing f5 on startup, hitting F8, ctrl+shift+windows key+b, unplugging and replugging screen, switching hdmi ports and disconnecting the power source from my computer and waiting for a few seconds before reapplying it. Same thing every time. A completely black screen.
You should consider taking it to a repair shop. Your computer may have hardware problems, or it may need a complete wipe of Windows 10 and a clean reinstall.
thank you, very well done.
Unfortunately my problem doesn’t seem to be mentioned on these posts.
I can get to the page “Startup Settings”, but pushing the restart button doesn’t end up at the safe mode options page, but just starts another round of “Diagnosing your problem”. The log in page is never reached either.
i have searched everywhere for a solution. Thank you for your Awesomeness. i will have to join this site.
It was locking up in less than a minute in windows 10
The msconfig worked! From there I could check the boot in safe mode
Then go in and delete the drivers I downloaded the screwed Italy up
Used the “interupt” method, however this never allows me to access safe mode – it just tries to fix things automatically (and fails).
I cannot start using safe mode by any of the methods suggested.
So my PC will be going in the bin, due to a failed update – thanks Microsoft, awesome job.
You can also use the command “shutdown /r /o /t 0” without the quotes to access that menu from a command prompt or run box
Thanks for sharing this method.
Great article informative and concise. Thanks!
You are a rock star. The interrupted boot was the ONLY way I could get my computer into safe mode. All of the other suggestions absolutely no longer work on my Acer all-in-one Windows 10 machine. THANK YOU
Happy to help! 😉 Do not hesitate to subscribe to our newsletter, for more useful tutorials.
When i turn the pc on no matter what method i use i can’t get into safe mode and get no further than the hp sign on the screen
What happens on the sign in screen?
None work. It use to be so easy. Why take away the best tool to troubleshoot your own computer?
there should be a warning about method #6 because safemode won’t work with an HDMI monitor. Now after changing the boot settings my computer is effectively stuck in safemode because it won’t recognize my HDMI monitor and there’s no way to change the boot settings without a monitor. Maybe I need an RGB cable?
It doesn’t matter the method you use to enter Safe Mode. Your problem is with Safe Mode in general. It sounds like you have some driver problems. We made this tutorial on a PC with an HDMI monitor. 0 problems!
So frustrated right now i cant get into my pc dell windows 10 when i enter my password the screen is black .i entered into safemode went into device manager tried to update the drive but it is saying cannot update in safemode.please help i dont know what to do from here .v
On some computers, you can go to BIOS anddisable fastboot. Exit BIOS and try Shift + F8 as soon as you see the first Logo.
Really thanks
step 7
This forum saved me hundred dollars. I was frustrated that I could get to the start menu. I was searching the internet all night for a solution that was easy to follow then I came across this. Good job putting this together.
Glad to help. 😉
Take a look at the link : http://www.digitalcitizen.life/4-ways-boot-safe-mode-windows-10
Now take a look at the title of the site : 7 ways to boot into Safe Mode in Windows 10
Why is in the link saying that there are 4 ways, but on the site 7 ways.
Did you guys edited it until there were 7 ways?
This article is improved once every few months. We started with four ways, and now we have seven. If we find another way, we will add that too. 🙂
God I can’t begin to express how much I hate Microsoft and Windows 10. The only thing worse was Windows 8. I hope this company perishes in flames.
i have a problem in graphics card so when i open the laptop (windows10) black screen appears all i can see the cursor so i want to start in safe mode before opening windows shift + f8 didn’t work for me
I’ve tried Shift, Shift+F8, ESC key, and disrupting boot up…nothing works! Can’t get the c-prompt either. What CAN I do to enter Safe Mode when these options DON’T WORK?
1. Please eliminate automatic updates; a friend showed me a ransom virus on her screen saying it was infected with a virus and she should call some 800 number or 888 etc; this was just “AFTER” the 4 JUNE 2018 auto update and she said it was the FIRST time she had ever seen that ? 2. Allow user so revert back to win 7 since it was a rock solid for most everyone. 3. Increase USER CONTROL not auto anything. FYI: Everyone” says Win10 is horrible; people don’t have time to get a phd in you your life work, just keep things the same ie win7 and make mods or tweaks to that instead of all new menu’s that are extremely frustrating. THANK YOU !
I updated my graphics card drivers and my monitor (Westinghouse LED TV) wouldn’t support the change. I tried doing this and it took me 20 minutes to get to the “Advanced Options” part…. then my mouse and keyboard stopped working. This is the darndest thing I’ve ever seen. Gonna try a new mouse but, i’m stumped. Next is to get a DVI cable, I guess, and hope i can trick the PC into thinking i have 2 monitors, and seeing if I can get the monitor to work that way.
That’s all great IF windows fully boots. If windows locks up mid boot (after logging in) none of this works.
So if the pc can boot but display c:windowssystem32configsystemprofiledesktop is unavailable and nothing happens after clicking
What is the alternative if can’t activate safe mode on boot since unable to load desktop and no shortcut keys work
Solution I tried is No. 6, interrupt Windows from booting, after 4th time you’ll be able to enter into Repair mode and do your things from there. That was a life saver man, thanks a bzillion!
It works with latest Win 10 April 2018 update issue when PC just gets stuck with black screen and cursor loading…very frustrating, but solution on this page to enter into repair mode and go back to previous version of Windows works like a charm. If you have the same issue and you can’t get that black screen off of your PC then this is the way to do it. Thanks!
Happy to help Haris! 😉
Thank you!
If you use option 5 how do you reset it to boot normal and not safemode every time? For me the described option did not work. It is still stuck in a continual failing reboot cycle after having tried to install the latest update. Now it just goes to safemode for a split second then flips to the trying to restore windows screen and fails again. So how do i set the normal boot process back through the command prompt again?
Very helpful article. Thank you very much.
Tried to post comment TWICE – these methods don’t work – and even the comment doesn’t post. It says “Captcha reuse attach detected”. Whaaa? There is no Captcha code to enter.
First 4 methods don’t work when OS doesn’t load, obviously.
Method #5 – recovery CD -> Command Prompt (assuming you HAVE a recovery CD) ->
“After your PC reboots, Windows 10 will automatically boot into Safe Mode” – no, it doesn’t go into Safe after reboot. It loops into BSOD again.
On my Gateway desktop PC, since Win 10 updates installed on March 14,2018 it does boot up, but will not prompt for sign-in and all USB ports seem disabled. I’ve tried as many ways as I can to boot into safe mode, but nothing is working, Please email me any additional suggestions. [email protected]
I couldn’t get any of the 7ways to get into safe,well half of them I can’t try because I can’t even get into the windows the screen because it goes blank do to unsupported resolution(and to be honest why would I need safe mode if I was all up in win 10 just to check out how slow it could go, I doubt it)! And the other couple ways DO NOT work , or are not a recognized command and the startup box is completely missing out of my advance option to be able to select startup with safe mode? WTF was I was thinking these are the reasons I left this platform after Vista! So my comment isnt the cheapest but does work 100% of the time look no further my other stumped and confused windows 10 users go down and buy yourself a piece of mind buy an APPLE! And none of the iOS will waste your time by locking you out of your machine ,and just think of all the extra time on your hands not wasted for hours on end trying to figure out the most idiotic commands hoping to steer your pc into safe mode, never mind the time spent reading and leaving comments! This is all time we don’t get back!!
The USB Ports on my all in one running win 10 with Intel Celeron stopped working so cannot use a keyboard or usb flash memory stick
Thank you very much…..
Windows 10 Creators update stalls at 82% because my Gateway computer will not support it. When this happens the computer does not respond to any keyboard or mouse actions including Ctl-Alt-Del. I have to use the power switch and when it boots it restores previous windows version. I look in updates for the Creators update but it is gone with the reboot or restore. If I can HIDE that update ‘in theory’ this will not keep happening but I don’t know how to capture it. HEAVY SIGH. days lost as those who think they know better seize my computer.
My keyboard isn’t lit up so I can’t start it in safe mode why is my computer stupid? Lol
I use Windows 10 and have been hung on updates for 8 days now, no other window appears besides the Lenovo, the wait and the restarting screens. I can’t start Windows in Safemode
none of these solutions work if the computer won’t boot.
Very Helpful Article
I really appreciated the article after spending 20 or more hours trying to deal with the repercussions of the forced upgrade to 1709. Yeah fwiw I did a safe mode via mscofig, played with the associated scenarios incl setting as default, discovered (of course) the printer wouldn’t work. Restarted a couple of times > set boot to Normal mode and, gosh my fingers are crossed, start up is now seems a respectable minute or two vs constant disk activity that repeated forever. Could the Safe Mode have removed the gum from the works? Again, thanks for the very well presented alternatives – needed you 20 hours earlier!
Microsoft does it again! How can so many programmers be so stupid??
7 very detailed ways to just enter the safe mode – in earlier wins action of two buttons. Silly evolving i believe.
Cannot get past the ‘Automatic Repair’ screen. PC hangs up there and then shuts off. Using a USB drive with Windows 10 install does not work. USB drive flashes for about 15-20 seconds, stops flashing, PC runs for 30 seconds or so, shuts off. I have tried everything I can find online (using other PC). I ran diagnostics and it found an error message that I have managed to see a few times – “No Diagnostic Utility Partition Identified. Press any key to reboot…” I press a key, PC shuts off after about 20 seconds. Any ideas? I did read the entire article, most is having a PC that you can boot up.
Good article. Saved me from a lot of extra work
If you have only limited access to these options you can also just press shift when you select power-restart. And then choose safe mode thru options in the menu which appears
yes, Winblw$ 10 / 8 (and even the older 7 or XP) start faster than ever, but Micro$oft is cheating here again because it’s just showing the early startup screen shortly after booting the computer (and not always at that really!) …
but a full startup that is going to work flawlessly (if ever!) takes AT LEAST 5 minutes even on a fast machine! and if you’re going to do serious work without unexpected crashes, especially after new updates are installed or old programs uninstalled and removed with a restart following thereof and so on, you’ll have to wait AT LEAST 20 minutes before truly logging in or you may lose data or the system simply fail to work! Winblow$ is till slow as hell! (that wait time after upgrades sometimes takes up to 2 or more hours!)
Winblow$ 10 also cheats when shutting the computer down: turns the monitor off quickly but disk activity continues at least a few more seconds after that! go figure how they try to fool the old computer savvy users and professional IT people! 😀
Very nice article…very helpful as my windows got stuck while updating….you saved my day…keep publishing such nice articles
If your computer isn’t working properly and you require safe mode then start the computer normally and select the various options for safe mode. Microsoft cannot be this incompetent, they are trolling us.
Excellent. Thank you.
Most excellent.
Peace.
Thank you
hey! this article is so helpful. . continue to share your knowledge here. . thanks
This is NOT BOOTING! THIS IS RESTARTING! This only helps if you are IN WINDOWS Already!!!!!
Please read everything, until the very end. We shared all methods, including ones that work when Windows doesn’t boot correctly.
After the first half of a Windows 10 update last night, my PC wouldn’t boot. It would just flash the DELL logo. After a few failed attempts to boot is safe mode with F8 I read our description of Windows 10 booting too fast. So I held F8 down as I pressed the power button to try again. I don’t thing it booted in safe mode but I got a progress bar in addition to the DELL logo. It flashed several times but I kept on holding down F8 and after a while got the spinning dots (new version old the old hour glass mouse cursor) and eventually it finished the updates and let me log in. I don’t know if that will work for anyone else but holding F8 from the start seemed to work for me.
This new configuration is BAD. I’m an old tech that first built the XT 8086 than 8088, then AT’s when Seagate drives of 500 MB yes megabyte cost $700.00. BRING BACK DOS!!! Up to Windows 10 every thing work smoothly and techs did not have to learn a TOTALLY new way to repair systems and OS. Duh ,U cannot repair an issue with Virus, malware and just booting into the OS if you cannot go into the safeboot from the BIOS/ Startup.According to the new OS you have to boot into Windows 10 and go into MSconfig to then select the safemode. DUMB
Now this is an extensive guide
OMG…..in the first paragraph you state “These methods stopped working because the start procedure became faster than ever before.” is such BS; there is noway in hell start up is faster. All of above is wonderful except for one thing…..I CANNOT GET IN TO WINDOWS 10 TO DO ANY OF THIS SHIT. How do you access safe mode from BIOS startup like we did in those great OS system windows XP and 7?
Maybe you should read ALL our article before saying that you cannot get into Safe Mode. That’s why we wrote it. To explain what Microsoft did and what you have to do differently, to access Safe Mode.
this is stupid. i need safe mode to get into windows!
Have patience and read all the methods we described. At least one of them will be useful to you.
F9 key and F11 key makes windows 8, 8.1 and all versions of windows 10 boot in too recovery mode
Thank you! I’m on page three of these comments, I’ve tried f8, f8 + shift, f2, f12… Your suggestion of f11 was the ONLY thing that brought my black screened computer back to life! Bless you!
Thank you so much – my Windows 10 update stalled (or at least I thought it stalled – it had been 4 hours since the update launched and it still was saying “This is taking longer than we thought…”) and I rebooted only to have it go horribly hinky. Your guide (particularly the shift + restart) did get me into the reset mode and I was able to get the computer back up. Windows then did its update overnight and all I have to do now is reinstall some apps. Thanks so much – this site was a lifesaver.
Thank you for this wonderful article ,you help me a lot ,thanks a lot God bless 🙂
I was able to enter safe mode user the DOS command,
bcd edit /set {default} safe boot minimal.
How do I undo that command, so that I do not go into safe mode all the time.
Thanks
I found the answer above in a post by Frederick Sieber.
Thanks (I should have read the posts first)
Thanks. This really worked great and we were able to recover all of our files.
I’m glad to hear that. 😉
When I am trying to enter comment promote so I install win 10 bootable USB then start setup when reach to install there is not any button for repair your pc.i am not able to boot my pc help me
Thanks very much to Codrut Neagu for suggestion #6. I was locked out of windows because I rebooted after switching to minimal “start up” mode, and that deactivated my password screen upon rebooting… so no access to Windows 10, which has NO ability to enter Safe Mode, except Codrut Neagu”s suggestion #6 whch saved my sanity after all else failed. Once on Safe Mode, I reversed what I’d done, returning to full “start up” mode, which once again gives me my password screen to get into Windows! Whew! I had only gone to “minimal” start up to try to discover why I was getting an configuration error message, that another instance of (something?) is running, which error message first appeared upon rebooting after I’d I added a USB 3 card to my Dell Desktop. There’s no conflict listed for my still having USB 2 hooked up elsewhere at the same time, so I’ll just live with “OK”ing the error message when I reboot, since I can find nothing amiss.
Sounds like BS to me. If they wanted to make it work, all they have to do is check for an F8 keypress as the first instruction on bootup. “Boots too fast” is just an excuse.
The recovery drive I created did not give the option to changes startup settings, it gave the option to change uefi settings, ie boot to bios settings screen. Now how do you get it to boot to start mode?
Answer to my last question is shown at https://support.hp.com/rs-en/document/c03439317#AbT1
I updated windows 10 and got a black screen with cursor so i tried safe mode. I was already in safe mode but the network wasnt working so restarted it. I needed the wifi to update the graphics drivers. So now i cant seen to boot into safe mode due to the missing startup settings. What should i do?
Article is (*) 5 star helpful!
Thanks
When booting into safe mode, Windows 10 does not recognize my password (administrator)
an easy way run shutdown /r /o or cmd shutdown /r /o
This is the second time in 2 weeks I have encountered the black screen with a blinking cursor in top left of screen. The first time it took me a few hours to repair, so this time I am documenting for myself and others to try help. My issue is on a Gateway FX PC. I have Deep Freeze Installed which prevents downloads and windows updates. The following is how I managed to fix: to enter boot menu. I press to enter setup to enter boot menu.
1.) I press Alt + ctrl +Shift + delete to reboot
2.) after rebooting the Gateway logo appeared with small text at the bottom press
3.) Press F12 From here you should be given the option to select boot device with up and down arrow keys then press Enter.
4.) Select second option. My first option was Generic ****
This should automatically boot and open windows.
5.) If not start at step 1.) when you get to step 4.) choose your third option.
As previously mentioned It happened to me twice so you should also change the Hard Disk Drive Priority, Boot options in the BIOS Setup Utility. Which I have now done second time around.
My pc was running very slow therefore I performed a windows reset with the option keep files and apps . My pc has 2 accounts . After the reset took place i logged in using one of the account and it did log in , so i went to start key and then selected to log into my other account . The screen went dark and then a different screen appeared with the default windows 10 background and three options in the lower right corner which were 1. A option which was ENG 2. Connectivity , it showed available wifi networks. 3. Ease of access .
And the pc is stuck in this particular screen ..
I am using a laptop so I pressed the power button and turned it off . After a while i again turned in on and it got stuck in the same screen ..
Please help me to solve this issue.
If u spam esc key on start-up of takes you to the troubleshoot page lets say
Windows message center popped “Click Here to Scan For Errors” (or something to that effect). So, yeah.. I clicked it and selected the offer to restart. Comp rebooted, startup screen said “Scanning Drive C: for errors” which displayed for about 10 seconds. Rebooted and started WDO and began scanning. At about 85-90% on the progress bar, comp rebooted and looped into this process. I left it to do it’s thing but no change. Later, I clicked the update tab in WDO, tried to update but it failed. Since then the loop persists WITHOUT WDO attempting to scan. Up until this started, my comp was running just fine. No indications of any problems whatsovever. My system is new (mid October 2016). Can I force Win10 out of WDO and into a normal boot mode?
If you can boot into windows in the first place chances are you don’t need to be in safe mode. If your file system or a driver is currupt your SOL. This is like driving your car to a gas station after you run out of gas. R.I.P Windows, MS should have left you @ Version 7, back before my PC looked like a hacked Xbox 360 with Office as a rental.
Steve Sinofsky’s comment, quoted in this article, stating, basically, that Windows 10 is “too fast” to allow for keyboard redirection during boot is ludicrous.
As if we don’t understand that Windows 10 – like any other operating system – is a PROGRAM, composed of lines of instructions.
The addition of additional lines of code, instructing the OS to wait for a few seconds, is all it would have taken.
To tout your failure to provide needed user amenities by claiming that the performance is so great that the physical laws of the Universe can’t be bent to accommodate users is .. well .. so Microsoft, in the fine tradition of ‘that’s not a bug … it’s a feature”.
These guys are so ready to prove how smart they are it is hilarious. People that can’t boot need to start in safe mode !.. So we search for ways online , only to find these “know it all” posts, that are meaningless unless you CAN ALREADY BOOT UP ! Totally useless information. anyone can find this information in settings, IF THEY CAN ALREADY BOOT UP!!! btw, great CAPTCHA. a commercial with no question to answer geezus you are so smart..
What command prop must I use at the startup menu
this article is well written,
However it doesn’t provide a solution to booting into safe mode where you don’t have access to windows 10, e.g. forgotten logon password. how can I do this?
Thank you so much very useful information.
Win 10 is the biggest mistake part from Win 8 and Vista wondering why Microsoft keeps rolling broke updates out just disable all updates from MICROSOFT no problems what so ever.
Thank you so much. The second method worked and I was able to log in and enter safe mode. I feared that I would loose all my data and would have to format my system(as the service center told) but all is fine now. I am feeling really happy about it and would like to thank you once again !
I recently had a video driver fail to install properly and got a black screen with only a mouse cursor after boot up. After some searching online (with my iPad) I learned that if you interrupt the boot process with the power button twice in a row, the third boot will take you to a recovery screen where you can select the troubleshoot option.
hey there i recently had similar problems i had win 10 installed few things werent were they suppose to be long story short made my computer in accessable would only boot to the blue screen with minimal options so i tried everything to recover what i did went over every step nothing worked … well couple nights ago i went onto the microsoft site they have a win 10 system iso (they have an option to download for another computer) so i downloaded it once it was downloaded i saved it to a folder in my desktop
next i went to rufus and downloaded the 2.8 portable version once that was done i open that insert a blank 8gb usb drive
in rufus up top it will have device-this will auto fill with the usb u insert
there are other options under this to fill but you can leave this it will auto fill it self with correct ones once u load with iso
next step is format options
go to create bootable disk using (make sure this box is checked ) click into it and find iso than beside that it has a cd type button click this and go to the folder where u have the iso you downloaded from microsoft click that
than click start it will do do what it has to that it will say finished or completed can take up to 10 mins
once its all done take the usb out and insert it into the computer you are having troubles with
turn the computer on and at startup hit esc (depending on computer) to get to startup options should have a few options to choose from one should be boot from device ?
click the usb u have inserted in and it should load up with win10 install
hope this helps it worked for my computer and havent had any problems since 🙂
For me restarting in safe mode only works when I let it start in normal mode and from login screen using -> (Shift key + Restart link under power options). Hope that helps someone!
This power cycle until it decides to enter recovery mode is PAINFULLY TEDIOUS. Microsoft totally f**** the pooch on this one. Clearly the only thing that Microsoft can be trusted to reliably do is consistently screw up procedures and features that were COMPLETELY FINE. Did anyone ever, for any reason, complain about having the ability to enter safe mode at startup?? What. The. F***
After I press ‘Advanced Options’ in safe mode, in place of ‘Startup Settings’ there is ‘UEFI Firmware Settings’. On clicking that, I am prompted to restart (to change the UEFI Firmware Settings). What should I do?
You would think that the “advanced” system of Windows 10 would SENSE the TIMING between ATTEMPTED boots and would automatically present the F8 screen when ….(5 reboots?) happen within 10 minutes. This is not rocket science people at Microsoft.
I have since read that some people have had some success on Windows10 with installations where it goes into the blue screen loop.
I wana to know which fool in ms designed so stupid operation and makes me can only re-install os.
Mcafee is the problem. After Windows 10 update the screen became black and sometimes native Windows 10 blue color. After reading lot of posts I opened the task manager by pressing (ctlr+alt+del) and then un-installed Mcafee. After uninstallation and restart – my desktop came back 🙂
Hope this helps someone!
It’s pretty simple to get into the boot sequence of windows ten, it wasn’t working for me at first, so stumbled upon this page… after searching i got tired and messed around with it myself for a little bit, and from the login screen, i clicked the restart button at the bottom right corner, once the wheel of death starts spinning with restarting underneath it, i began pressing F2 and F12 at the sametime, and i got it at one try to get into setup utility… but you have to press these keys like 6x per seconds, that F2 receive 6 presses while F12 also receives the same, so i don’t know which one worked per se.
I have had the black screen with a blinking cursor on several occasions when Win 10 tried to update. I am on an old Lenovo box and discovered that an old school ctrl-alt-del took me to the Lenovo start up screen where I could press enter to avoid the automatic startup. Pressing F-11 then started Win 10 right up again. Not quickly as all the updates had to be installed, but reliably.
Thanks. It worked well wil W10. (y)
What if my computer isn’t able to boot the first time after I upgrade from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10?
Thanks for nothing…
I had this problem with Windows 10 when I tried to update Kaspersky software which wasn’t compatible. I could not even boot back into windows. I fixed it by going to trouble shooting, advanced options then restore to earlier state which got me back into windows. Then uninstalled kaspersky and downloaded the compatible version and installed. This worked for me on my Asus laptop, hope it helps others who may have not tried this.
Hey, i just upgraded my laptop to windows 10 from 8.1 and now before logging in an error named kernel auto boost aquisition keeps restarting the pc. Please tell me what do i do now?
I have a Toshiba Satellite laptop, and I installed Window 10. Unfortunately, I need to update the drivers to get it to work, and when I tried to enter the Safe Mode with Networking by selecting Option 5 or F5, I could not get an Internet connection. How can I get the Safe Mode to allow me to use my Internet browser to find my Toshiba Drivers Update page?
Hi, my problem is that I am now stuck in Active Directory Repair version of safe mode on my Lenovo Helix ThinkPad… The kicker is that in the main Safe Boot screen I can open the on-screen keyboard and go to the Advanced Options (where you can still use the pointer), but after clicking “Restart” under ANY option you either have to type your password or choose options via number or function keys. The punchline here is: my keyboard dock doesn’t work, so I’m stuck with the touchscreen (system NOT set to default tablet mode before entering Safe Mode) and have no clue how to induce the on-screen keyboard after Advanced Options-> [any option]-> Restart. Help, please…!
FYI… Yes, there’s not F8/Safe Mode option, but there’s advance option to reset Win 10 and retain files…
** Reboot device… you can keep pressing F12 every second.. You device may boot asking to go into Bio and that is NOT where you want to go.. Hit ESC… Win 10 will now begin to load, you may now see a “Please Wait ” pop up as Win 10 try’s to boot.
**You’ll see a new blue window with options to Reset/repair Win 10, advance Options.. Choose this option and NOT Restart Win 10.
**Eventually you want to reset Win 10 with the option to retain your files or a clean install.. Your choice.
** Just let it reinstall and your good to go.
By the way if you have an Admin assigned to the device it will ask for the Admin password… SO be prepared
Good luck
Nowires01
I’ve got my computer into save mode but I can open the magnify glass. So will any of these options work to proceed further and then get it back into normal mode?
I installed Windows 10 for free from Windows 8 about 8 days ago. Later, upon booting up the computer I was asked for the password. I entered it, but it would keep asking over and over for the password. I am 100% I entered the correct password. I then entered ‘another’ password. I got the message “wrong password entered”. I tried to boot up via a thumb drive but this didn’t work either….FINALLY I came across this forum. I hit the shift + restart button and was able to get to safe mode. I opted to uninstalled Window 10…back to Windows 8 I come…..this forum was very, very helpful!
Has anyone experienced a Windows 10 Upgrade from 7 64Bit Pro and all went well until I shut the machine down at the end of the day. A message appeared after the screen went black for shutdown and said. Interactive sign-in process initialization failed. Please check the event log for details. And no matter how many times you click on Ok or restart the same window appears. Tried all sorts of recoveries usually found in Win 7 with a no go? Any ideas?
dont edit your msconfig in windwos 10. like other users. i am screwed now.
I used Option #1 to get into Same Mode. NOW i CAN’T GET OUT OF IT! MSCONFIG won’t start in safe mode and every time I restart the computer it starts right back in Safe Mode. How do I get back to regular mode?!?!
Tray this frome abowe…
Tray this frome abowe…
Fixed it using Stanley Levinson’s solution. Thanks!
Tacke out batery and unplag the ac. Press power buten for fue sec.. plag ac and batrery,press start … Go to setings and pres continue to win.10. That is the solution…
Try ctrl+home on boot, it goes into starup repair and gives you many other options like safe mode.
It is simple – press F8 when start computer and do not let go, while launch recovery
Well, my Windows 10 had the start menu and Cortana (I think that’s what its called) fail to launch. I could not figure out how to get it into safe mode. I recently updated it from Windows 7. It had been working fine until two days ago. I had to shut it down with the power button. Turn it back on and it would give me an error message that said that the start menu and cortana would not load. Sign off and windows will fix it. I did this over a dozen times and got the same thing over and over. I couldn’t figure out how to get it into safe mode like I used to do. So I had to bring it to a computer store so hopefully they can fix it at my expense when I might have been otherwise able to do a safe mode and a system restore. I had been OK with Windows 10 until now.
I have Windows 10 and it was working fine. Today i get the white screen. Totally locked up. Cannot get to safe mode. Tried all these suggestions, e.g. bootable USB, take battery our and hold power key, F8, Shift+F8,etc. Cannot get to the restart button to try Shift+Restart. Nothing. HELP!
You can do safe boot, etc. though administrative tools in the Control Panel, search the CP for boot. Click on System Configuration. Clic on boot. It is self explanatory. I am finding that on Windows 8.1 and 10, you can do most things through the control panel. To me, this is simpler and more straight forward.
Hi,
I haven’t tried this with Windows 10 yet, but will over the weekend, thought I would put it out there.
I had the same issue on several PC’s running UEFI bios and SSD. (They were on Windows 7, but still the same issue) They were too fast to execute the F8.
In the BIOS, under the boot section (on mine anyway) there is a section entitled POST delay. I increased that value (on mine to 3 seconds) and that gave the time necessary to execute the F8.
I will test with a failed Windows 10 box, as soon as I get the PC.
OK, So the change I made (on an Asus mobo) delayed the POST and gave enough time to easily get into the BIOS. It did not help the F8 and may not be available on all PC’s.
What I ended up doing was to boot from CD using a Windows 7 Disc, which then let me get into some maintenance options, none of which worked of course. (Tried them all) However after doing that, followed by a forced shutdown, Windows 10 rebooted and offered me some new options.
From the advance features, I got to a Command prompt and enabled the F8 function using the command:
bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacy
(thanks to another website)
Rebooting let me get into Safemode and after cycling a couple of times through updates, all is well.
Hope that helps someone
I have a new Dell and selected the Win 10 upgrade but need to revert. Here are some issues with using Shift-Restart:
1. I inserted the Dell USB recovery stick, but it didn’t show up in the “Use a Device” list.
Solution: reboot. It should now show up.
2. When I used the USB option, it loaded files then popped up a dialog that was so small I had to use a magnifying glass.
Solution: before restarting, go to Settings and change the display resolution (not just the text size!) to something lower, like 1024×768.
When you sign out of Windows 10 Technical Preview Build 10061 and return to the lock screen, you might see only a black screen with a responsive mouse cursor. Pressing the Alt+Tab keys or the Ctrl+Alt+Del keys has no visible effect.
Workaround
If you are experiencing this issue, follow these steps to sign into Windows:
At the black screen, press the Ctrl key once on an attached physical keyboard. (You won’t see any visible change, but pressing the Ctrl key will place the cursor in the password box that you’re currently not able to see.)
Now type the password of the user that just signed out and press Enter.This will sign you back into Windows and the desktop will appear.
If you failed to sign in because you mistyped the password, press Enter once more. Then retype the password and press Enter.” …
PLEASE NOTE: IF YOU ARE INSTALLING WINDOWS 10. AFTER ENTERING YOUR PASSWORD, THE CURSOR SHOULD VANISH FOR SEVERAL MINUTES WHILE WINDOWS COMPLETES THE INSTALL SETUP.
Add similar solution: Total 5 ways.
Start computer and hold power button until shut off. This triggers the auto repair and gets you to the (choose keyboard menu), mentioned above By Codrut Neagu on 06/10/2015
Totally agree. I’m an IT supporter, but have not used Win 10 much. Recently I installed Win 10 on a brand new Asus ROG gaming system, SSD, it boots extremely fast. Win 10 got stuck on updating an Nvidia driver and perfectly booted in black nothingness. Argh. Tried everything, nothing worked, black screen of death continued. Had no other Win 10 system near me to create a recovery drive. No reset button. So I had to use to most barbaric method and rip out the power cord during boot. Did that nearly 20 times, close to giving up – but suddenly this extremely fast system recognized that something was wrong – a blue screen of help emerged – and for the first time I could choose Safe Mode – and could fix the problem.
I’m sticking to Win 7 for now on my own system – PCs are not simple tablets, but have immense hardware variations, thus risk of problems are much higher – and therefore the need for sufficient repair options. With Win8 this may not have been noticed much, because many did not upgrade from Win 7 to 8. But with the massive upgrades from Win 7 to 10, I’m very curious how Microsoft will react to this very serious (and in my opinion completely unacceptable) Win 10 issue.
My windows 10 died yesterday. During boot up it shuts off the keyboard and mouse, and then displays the first screen with the date and time. I have an MSI gaming G series motherboard and I can log into the bios – so the keyboard and mouse work there. But as soon as I exit the bios the mouse and keyboard shut off. So what can I do?
i upgraded to 10 last weekend only to find the system would boot all the way to the desktop with no app shortcuts on the desktop…through the start menu you could activate any and all apps however they would all operate only in the background…
called microsoft “technical” support, the indians first request was to access my system – impossible for a start since i could not access any network settings to allow it and secondly only a moron would allow a subcontracted company from the 3rd world access to their system
they emailed me instructions which “may” help get the system going, all of the instruction required me to boot into the system and then, you guessed it, activate applications and manipulate them!
in the end i had to resort to booting to the desktop multiple times and switching it off at the wall until it crashed, not a method i would recommend as you risk damaging your motherboard
i have reset the system back to the original win 10 installation and will roll it back to win 8 this weekend… it is not worth the headaches
After running ok for weeks my system couldn’t find the boot drive and after some changes in the BIOS I am getting “Fixing Hard Drive” and it just sits there at 1% and nothing happens! I have tried Safe Boot and selected Roll Back but it didn’t work either!
I have a crashed Windows 7 laptop, just spent hours trying to fix it. Windows 7 repair disk won’t do anything, and neither will the Windows 10 install USB that I created. On the Windows 7 computer, I accessed safe mode and the command prompt through Advanced Options. Did a complete chkdsk /f /r D: , which showed a couple of bad clusters, but said that there wasn’t enough room on the disk to replace them…even though the report said that there was space. Rebooted…same problem, sometimes stuck in Diagnosis cycle, sometimes able to log in, get desktop, but can’t open anything. Keep getting BAD_SYSTEM_CONFIG_INFO error message! I upgraded on my Windows 8.1 without any problems so far. But I want to use my older computer too! If I get to the SAFE MODE, what do I do then?
iv given up- thankfully after about n hour i downgraded back to 8.1-what a waste, they had more than 6 months to figure it out.
Lamdows 10 was not Ready for the World yet. Downgrade back to Win 7 or 8 for another 10 more years until a new true successor comes out. Seriously it is a unstable platform. And yet it already got hack. Typical trash. DX12 is not gonna be standardlize if most peeps is already diverting back to older windows. They can give a rat ass about it for this unreliable unstable O.S.’es.. They need to fire who ever made this crap..
Microsoft should not provide a free product that crashes your computer. After decades of them being in the software business it’s striking that so many if us can’t even start out computers after thus update . Most people would have to take the computer into to shop for a fix. Microsoft should be ashamed and bury they’re heads in the sand!
Like many in this thread I was stuck in the black hole of the boot sequence.
The OS was not able to wake up , the F8 was not functional.
After a frustration night, I thought I found solution: to create a bootable USB, boot from there and try to fixed or diagnose or move to safe mode from there.
How to do that, can be found here: http://www.groovypost.com/howto/create-windows-10-bootable-usb-flash-drive/
Or here : http://www.groovypost.com/news/install-test-windows-10-technical-preview/
Fortunately, when I tried to hold the BIOS reset sequence, and missed it, a few times, the OS (which tried to boot but was stucking in black screen) discovered that something is wrong (due to my constant shouting down the PC) and run the diagnostic tool which bypassed the failure point and gave me some choices.
I chose to reset the whole PC deleting all the apps and keeping my data.
It worked although I had to reinstall all my software.
Ofer
Nothing was working for me until I found some advice on a different thread:
Turn it off, remove the battery, unplug the laptop from its power source, leave it off a few minutes, hold down the power button for 5-10 seconds, plug power back in BUT NOT THE BATTERY, turn on laptop. It should start normally. Then put battery back in at your earliest convenience.
Didn’t work for me….
i installed windows 10 and get 100% progress. when my windows restart and show windows logo an after waiting icon my screen off and on and show waiting icon again and goes to loop an show waiting progress again and again an screen off and repeat!! what can i do?
I had same problem. I turned of my screen resolution to the lowest before I left, to save energy. So screen turned off basically. Then when I came back after an hour i could not increase the screen resolution. just black screen. I started to boot up again but again black screen after welcome screen, however i could see mouse pointer. I could turned on computer on safe mode, but again when i restarted i got black screen again.
THEN WHEN I UNPLUGGED THE POWER CABLE, MAGIC HAPPENED SCREEN CAME BACK :)) i tried again plug power cable, screen get blacked, tried again plugging the power cable screen came back.
So you might try to unplug your power cable. It solved my problem.
I couldn’t get the f8 to work for me. I wore out my index finger trying. But I did have another way to get the advanced options menu. This mother board I bought in 2010 to replace a melted Dell allows for a couple of options before it boots the os, hit delete to enter setup is the one, which goes to the bios options and one is hit F8 to QFlash. So then I hit reset and restarted and it booted with the “please wait” message and let me into advanced recovery and “go back to previous build”. Not sure how long it should take but for an hour now it’s been on”go back to previous build”, “restarting” with the little dots rolling in a circle. I might be stuck in a temporal causality loop.
I can’t get past the “Welcome Back Dave” screen. Enter the correct password, stuck, crash, restart. I want to go back to windows 7. I was happy with it. Why did I fall for 10???
Because Dave, like the rest of us, you thought it would be better. But, like the rest of us, you were wrong. Now we are stuck with this pos and have to figure out how to fix it. Coincidentally – we are in the exact same position you are in, right now. But I will figure it out, some way – shape – form – or another and will post the answer here. Working on it now.
Ok, Finally got a solution to go back to Windows 7. I was able to get the computer to accept an F8 key after a few restarts. I had tried to just holding it down, and that didn’t work, so then I tried pressing it very, very fast the second it started to boot and I must have done it right because as soon as the windows icon appeared I saw words appear with it “Please Wait” and low and behold I got the wonderful screen with options to appear. From there I selected “Troubleshooting”, Then I selected “Go back to previous build” and now it is reversing the update and going back to Windows 7.
Once it is back to windows 7, I will make sure I have EVERY update installed first this time and then try again… if I get the same results, then I will do the same thing and revert back to its previous build, again, but I won’t upgrade to 10 until they get it fixed the right way.
Hope this helps someone. FYI my computer specs are as follows (from what I can recall from looking at them a few minutes ago, I didn’t write it down and it is an older computer)
CPU 2.6 g
Memory 16g
SATA HD 1TB
yr made 2009, gateway, purchased – no idea, I got it a year ago from family – it had a virus on it and they thought it was garbage. That is how I get all my Windows based computers.
Bus speed – can’t remember
GPU – offboard, can’t remember stats
other than that, it is whatever it came with when purchased. I have not upgraded anything to it, yet. Gave it to my son (18yr old) as a gamer computer because it can be upgraded to full gamer capabilities.
freebe windows, here to spyy. get it NOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWW.
FREEEE DXXXXXX 12.. Gamer choice for super gaming…:))))
When I use option 2 (restart holding the shift key down) and get to Advanced Options I find that option 5 Startup Settings is missing? Its this option that would otherwise let you select a start up in safe mode. So I don’t believe option 2 actually lets you boot into safe mode!
Similar problem here. I installed Windows 10 with no problems about a week ago but there has been a succession of minor issues ever since. Yesterday my AMD graphics driver was updated on the HP Support utility recommendation, after which I lost sound and everything became unstable. Tried to do a restart and the PC crashed to a blue screen saying “restarting” with the swirly thing. Needless to say the PC didn’t restart and switching off had no effect; each time I switched on again it was the same screen. However, removing the power cord as suggested here a few times together with some pressing of F8 did eventually bring up the recovery menu (maybe the menu would have appeared anyway). The PC would not respond to the ‘recovery’ option so I moved on to the ‘reset’ option and followed the recommendation to backup files to an external drive. This failed after cataloging all the files despite there being plenty of spare hard disc capacity. Whatever the next option was, I just blindly accepted it and eventually it progressed to restarting the PC, doing lots of updates in the process. Took ages but eventually everything restarted normally. The HP Support utility offered me another AMD driver update which so far I have declined. What a nightmare!
Yes yes yes this worked for me …. Hallelujah!!!! Thank you!!!! I had an update for my display drivers and it backed my screen with that dreadful spinning busy mouse.. But I finally got to the advanced options by unplugging it the three times. Thank you so so much!
Upgraded to windows 10 from windows 7 now it hangs up at Verifying DMI Pool. Nothing I do will get me past there. ???
Thank you, you have saved my life mr.Neagu! blessings to you!
my starting page in win10 says administrator and then Your account has been disabled . Please see system administrator. What can I do to restore this account? I am the system administrator myself. Thanks.
Lol! OSX on Macs boot even faster than Windows 10 and there’s different keys you can hold (not hit repetitively like a monkey) to boot into different modes.
Microsoft just doesn’t have the knowledge to do it but they won’t admit it. Stop the bullshit Microsoft!
My computer is stuck in the “Diagnosing problems” boot loop. I can access the UEFI Boot, but there are no useful things there.
Installed win 10 and crashed after a few days on my Samsung laptop. Continually loads Aptio setup utility. Cannot change settings and get to safe mode and load last configuration. Any ideas? Thanks.
I installed Windows 10 and I got to the point where you choose the language of your keyboard. But at this point either mouse or keyboard don’t let me select the option. What shall I do now.
Many thanks
Gabby
Hey Guys,
Yesterday I installed a Geforce Driver from the Geforce Experience, called Geforce Windows 10, to work ideally with Windows 10 that I had already installed and had no issus with it. However, in the middle of the installation the screen goes black and shows the mouse cursor, permanently rotation (the little loading circle). This went on for a while until I turned the pc of and went to sleep. Next morning, no matter what I do, the black screen is still there and all attempts of getting to safe mode have failed. I have an SSD and it doesn’t recognise any keys during the boot up and goes straight into the black screen each time I restart it. Do I have to remove the graphics card or is there an option left to do this with software fixes? Any help would be much appreciated!
Philipp
Edit: I fixed the issue. Using 2 tips from a friend I was able to restart and fnish the computer without going into the safe mode.
1) When the computer restarts, the instant the BIOS pops up, showing the logo of the hardware etc. I was able to press F12 and that brought me to the BIOS. There I clicked the 3rd option that said something along the lines of “Fix issues” or “Resolve problems” something like that (dont remember as I was excited and anxious to get it fixed again :P). Then the screen went from pink into blue and it configurated the updates, I presume the ones I had started the previous night and then everything worked fine from there.
2) By pulling the power plug of the computer and restarting it 3-4 times that brings up the Safe mode automatically because the computer detects and issue upon the boot up failing over and over.
This was a real pain in the neck and I hope one of the tips works for you so you can resolve your own issue.
Good luck!
If your problems (printing, creating PDFs, and getting the swirly ball with “not responding”) with Windows 10, prompts you to try resetting, but receive an error message that it is unable to reset because something is missing, should you attempt to reset in safe boot mode?
Same issue will not BOOT, screen flickers, no keyboard or mouse. PC worked fine on win7, then went to shit after FREE Upgrade. SHAME ON YOU MICROSOFT!!!! YOU JUST CRASHED MY UNIT!!!
I also had trouble getting into safe mode, having UEFI and an SSD drive.
HOWEVER, I pressed and hold Shift+F8, got a prompt from the BIOS.
While keeping shift+f8 pressed, I went through the prompt, and then safe mode appeared! 🙂
Successful install but as it apparently pulled in the latest update during the install process, my machine now is stuck in a reboot cycle each time I log in. And as stated above, no way to start in safe mode. MS does not even apparently give a choice during upgrade of turning off auto upgrade (upgrade from win 7 64 pro). Expected as much. Ms pushed it out the door too quickly. Customer tests the product after release. Glad I didn’t upgrade my main machine. Will probably upgrade my win 10 machine back to vista. At least I never had a vista install fail. Vista was just a resource pig but at least was stable (for me anyway)
F8 is disabled by default.
To enable open elevated cmd.
bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacy
Reboot
Tadaa! F8 is back.
bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy standard to disable it again.
This worked like a boss. Thanks, dude!
No, it’s not disabled, per se´ it is just that the new OS boots so fast and the new hard drives are so fast that they don’t even recognize that a key is pressed, unless you have an older, legacy system.
That is why it isn’t working to get into safe mode upon start up in most computers that are newer than 2013 models.
but when stuck in a loop and not able to access safe mode, how do you get to a place where you can do that?
Thank you, thank you, thank you!,, I installed Win10 and my computer has been locked up for 3 days. I tried everything to get to boot up. Your shift-restart worked!
I have similar situation. After window 10 upgrade, my monitor screen was flickering. I tried for safe mode but can’t get. After restart, I can go to Bios setup but not on safe mode even if I press F8. I am using Lenovo ThinkCentre Edge 71. On the reboot I can see window logo in booting process and after then small flicker on the screen and than permanent blue screen. Key board and mouse remains inactive. If I push power button again, it turns off the CPU. If I start by power button, the process remain as it is and window never boot up complete. Anu suggestions.
Ok I got to burn a windows system repair disk
On a working version of 10 used it on my windows 7 update which was in a loop as others have no fun at all so it gave me some options but I went for the reset windows keep personal files after this step it’s not in a loop but keyboard and mouse are not working so maybe updating and won’t give me access till done oh tried all other ways could not get safe mode ect or create recovery media oh and I had to disconnect drive to get into bios to boot from DVD hope this may help a little
I
Just spent a couple of hours trying to help a friend with windows 10 black screen. Eventually identified screen driver issue. But having to get into safe mode by interrupting boot and then using the advanced options. Ended up causing a corrupt boot sector. Microsoft short cutting again! Hal’s suggestion easy to implement for Microsoft if they had any foresight.
In IT support this is a real nightmare since we can’t easily fix issues people are suffering from on new devices as practically every new Windows computing device have been UEFI since about 2012. How hard would it have been for Microsoft to acknowledge holding down a button to bring you to the menu? They’ve more or less glorified the useless ‘wipe and restore’ mentality that less skilled repair folks engage in when a simple safe mode & adjustments could easily fix problems.
None of the above seems to work, at all. I’m constantly seeing diagnose problems screen, I get the cursor, C+A+D doesnt do anything, and if by a miracle I get to the Startup Settings in Step Two (don’t ask me how I have no clue), it merely restarts and sends me back to Diagnosing your PC hell. Thanks MicroSoft.
I just upgraded 8/4/15. All was going fairly well with only a couple of application issues I fixed. Day 3, at some point some updates were applied. Day 5, my screen lock shows with a network icon in the lower right and responds to Crtl+Alt+Delete but then no login prompt appears. Only the background graphic is visible with the network, handicap, and power icons in the lower right. I tried typing my username and password in the blind but that did nothing, nor did restart and power cycles.
I found that to enter “safe” mode you must now hold the shift key while you click the power icon. I’d created a system restore point just after the upgrade but using it *failed* and it stated it was reverting back.
Curiously on restart though, it presented “Getting Windows Ready, Do Not Turn Off your Computer” as it rebooted. Then it said “Working on updates, 100%, Do not Turn Off Your Computer”. That was followed by the same message except starting 15% until complete. Who knew, right?
I continued waiting for about 20 minutes and it said “Restarting” and rebooted.
Again it presented “Getting Windows Ready” and “Working on Updates” sequences. Finally 10 min later my screen saver has returned with C+A+D and now it let me log in. It’s back but oddly now displays that “System Restore completed successfully” and has the proper date.
I’d like to call this success but since I’ve no idea WTF happened or how it solved itself (we’ll with my help), so I will leave it to someone here to answer.
Good luck out there.
PS. I suspect that my issue may be Nvidia related since I do not see an updated driver for my GeForce 8600 GT listed. It may have tried to update the latest regardless, though I’m not finding specific evidence in the Event Viewer.
That said I decided to stop allowing Updates to be installed automatically. I checked out and installed Microsoft KB3073930 which lets me hide or show hidden updates (wushowhide.diagcab).
If anyone comes across the the last two hours of my life spent chasing this, please put it to good use.
Hiya. Im having the same problem right now.
Dont know what is going on. A roll back probably helps always but doesnt tell me what would have gone wrong, just like you said. Still dont understand why windows keeps putting stuff on the market that is not ready yet. Windows 10 works but the safemode sucks. This is the second time im trying to get in. The first time worked but to get out wasnt without issues. But this is just not acceptable anymore and am completely stupified.
Hiya. Im having the same problem right now.
Dont know what is going on. A roll back probably helps always but doesnt tell me what would have gone wrong, just like you said. Still dont understand why windows keeps putting stuff on the market that is not ready yet. Windows 10 works but the safemode sucks. This is the second time im trying to get in. The first time worked but to get out wasnt without issues. But this is just not acceptable anymore and am completely stupified. Edit:http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/292753-turn-off-safe-mode-boot-command-line.html if you follow the link the guy mentioned in this link. You can solve this problem through command prompt. It worked for me. And got in to safemode again. I told msconfig to boot into registry solving or something. I didnt know what it was for and tried it. But when doing so the login window does not appear indeed. I have no clue what this registry thing does. If anyone knows… greets.
I had he getting windows ready thing too, was getting quite frustrated pressing the power button on my v important laptop
I had the getting windows ready thing too, was getting quite frustrated pressing the power button on my v important laptop
Installed Windows 10 and love it to be honest. However, when I installed the Radeon drivers using the “automatic” method, the system rebooted and went to total black screen.
Finally shut it down during start up and on the 4th try the Windows 10 started a diagnostic that allowed me to reset my restore point. Come to find out it was the video settings/drivers that screwed it up.
Now I’m a happy camper.
This was the only way i could get to safe mode.
Now the only option seems to be Go back to previous build. Still waiting on the outcome.
Windows 10 sucks.
I concur
I totally agree, I hate windows 10! Now I’m stuck, can’t get into safe mode, can’t do anything really. Did I mention I hate windows 10?
Second attempt on Windows 10, still got Blue Screen of Death, after a minute of boot up. Tried the option above I mentioned about Ending the Process on Catalyst in Task Manager, which stopped it rebooting. Yay. Then went onto the laptop’s manufacturer to download latest video card driver, installed, machine no longer reboots 🙂
My PC gets stuck on welcome back screen I click next and off she goes again
we are having the exact same problem, Wade. Have you found a solution for this problem yet? Besides picking up the computer and throwing it out the window?
Did you ever resolve this issue? Having to deal with the same thing.
I have since read that some people have had some success on Windows10 with installations where it goes into the blue screen loop. They let is boot up and login, then as quick as they can, get into Task Manager and do End Process on the two AMD’s Catalyst processes in the Processes tab. Then their machines don’t Blue Screen after 60 seconds, and they are able to update their Graphics drivers in device manager to the latest, and it gets them stable again. Hope this works for some people, I gave up and went back to Windows 8.1
Can’t you just start into safe mode (shift + restart in these 60sec) and then remove the driver via device manager ? I got nvidia and this way it worked for me… I only had had about 15sec to do so… So can’t try for amd…
Well done sir. Shift Restart was the answer. Thank you.
Shift Restart worked for me.
I cannot logon to windows 10 after the upgrade, hopefully this will let me get in and fixed the username files.
Thanks
Trying to make a recovery drive. Get message: “We can’t create a recovery drive on this PC” “Some required files are missing…yada yada…” So if a newly installed device driver or software bluescreens the PC before getting to the start screen, I have to reset/reinstall windows instead of just removing that 1 item? WTF?
Another little bit barbarian way on PC with not the fastest SSD: you push the Reset button during startup (as soon as the windows logo shows up), and next time you are offered for troubleshooting. Than you make your way to safe mode for example.
Thank you so much for this piece of advice! It”s the only thing that worked for my PC. I cannot thank you enough.
Hi. I dont know if it work for all MBs but on my MSI Gaming 7 still work under all OS pulling out the power cabel on OS load screen. After that pc should go directly into safe mode. ( for me without keyboard and it is fast enought for ssd too 🙂 )
It also works for most notebooks just pull out the battery in the same time like on the Pc..
This article proved invaluable… I finished a Win10 stall and my AVG prompted to update. I updated and from that point on, I kept getting this error (avgcsrvx.exe) it would just keep popping up and various things would happen preventing the OS from completely coming up (some icons, partial taskbar and this error message popping up, erratic mouse, slow…). I figured if I could get to safe mode I could delete AVG and at least get back on track.
I had been able to get to the login screen and from there held the Shift and clicked the restart. It didn’t work the first time but about the third attempt it worked. I uninstalled AVG and did a restart. Thanks!!!
For me, it didn’t work either on first try, I also needed a second… But I had a problem with my GPU driver, I became a bluescreen after logging in when the driver has loaded (about 15 sec)..
“But I had a problem with my GPU driver, I became a bluescreen after logging in when the driver has loaded (about 15 sec)..”
Sorry, but I found this very funny =0P
AVG screwed me up too.
Wow… people still use AVG?! C’mon. it’s 2015. You’re better off only using Microsoft Security Essentials.
Microsoft Security Essentials cannot be installed in Windows 8, 8.1 or 10. It has been stopped after Windows 7. You can use Windows Defender, which is pre-installed in the system other than that you cannot use it. It is no more compatible. There are other securities which can be used and is better than AVG.
AVG free has a much much higher detection rate than MSE. I used to install MSE on customer computers and a few of them got plenty of malware and a few viruses. Installing AVG caught everything
AVG has higher FALSE detection rate and is as bloated as Norton and McAfee.
Windows Defender (MS Security) does its job, isn’t buggy and doesn’t try to extort money from you every 10 min.
I’ve done custom installs of it without the identify theft crap or the email crap (only applies to pop3/imap retrieval) and it works pretty well. It’s never seemed to slow down as much as mcafee/norton at all. MSE/Defender is indeed faster, but I’ve found it catches less. This is from cases of finding computers with MSE that has viruses, and AVG caught them once I installed it. They were not false detections, but I have seen a few of those too but usually AVG is like ‘unsure’, and it doesn’t automatically get rid of it if it thinks it’s a false detection
I also like Malware Bytes as just a scanner, it catches a few things neither AVG or MSE catches
I suggest people don’t use AVG anymore. Recently, I read an article, I almost forgot where it came from, but in their terms and agreement, they told that they will sell our data that AVG collected from our computer, that’s the price of a free software!
I think you did forget, not almost. 🙂
This has caused me major problems with the latest Windows 10 upgrade.
As the upgrade installer progressed through but gave blue screen of death at the end. Likely caused by a Driver issue.
In the past I would have gone into safe mode to start diagnostics.
Now I get the blue screen error every time I try to boot windows.
Without being able to start Windows, I cannot use option 1 to get into Safe Mode using msconfig.
I can’t use option 2, as I cant start windows, to select Shift+Restart.
Because the upgrade was done using the automatic windows update, I don’t have a media to try option 3 starting from a recovery media.
Plus with a fast start up speed, option 4 (the F8 method) doesn’t work.
Does anyone have a further method to get into Safe Mode?
Make a recovery drive on a PC that has Windows 10 and use that. It’s your only option.
I have total black screen and can’t do or select anything after I turn on my computer. All I can see is the mouse cursor. I made a recovery drive from another Windows PC. How do I activate this drive if I can’t do/see anything on my black screen?
This means that the desktop has failed to load. If you press CTRL-ALT-DEL you should be able to start the task manager. From there you can select the File tab and then New Task to run msconfig (or any other program for that matter).
Thank you so much! I got a blue screen of death a few minutes after upgrading to 10 and had no idea what to do until I read your comment. CTRL-ALT-DEL brought back my desktop. Yay!
make sure you have nothing plugged into your computer,I built a new computer andif i have a flash drive plugged in i get the flashing cursor in the top left corner,it took me a few minutes to workout what the problem was
Hi and thanks for your submission. After you have the black screen and flashing cursor what did you do to get the windows 10 to boot?
I have that same exact problem black screen and nothing else. i i hit the windows key I get a busy icon.
On the black screen with cursor press CTRL+ALT+DEL then in the bottom right corner click the power icon then press and hold SHIFT key while clicking on restart.
This worked even without a cursor present. Thanks
These guys are too busy showing how smart they are to solve this problem. Notice the “fixes” only work if your computer already boots up.. in other words, only those that don’t need the fix can use the fix..
You’re absolutely right. I’ve been stuck on this Windows repair screen all night and can’t figure out how to access any of that crap. If I was, I wouldn’t be stuck on the stupid Windows repair screen!
I realise this thread is old, but I’d like to help the poor soul who gets stuck. @Tom, that’s neither a kind nor a smart remark. Of course, when the bootloader is broken, you cannot go into safe mode either. That’s not a shortcoming of this article or these comments. Safe mode is designed to solve all kinds of problems, i.e. with drivers, but if startup is “broken” safe mode cannot help.
As long as the bootloader is okay, shutting down the PC three times is a failsafe way to get to the Troubleshooting Options and hence the Startup modes.
if you press f8 and shift cant go to safe computer go in windows defender offline
That’s an unacceptable solution. I don’t have a way to do that. I’ve been restarting my computer repeatedly for the last several hours. My only other option is my Android cell phone, which isn’t going to let me create a boot disk for my Windows 10 upgrade. I’m disabled, and I depend on my computer for nearly everything I do. This is a serious problem for me. I should never have upgraded. I cannot lose my apps, because I depend on them, and some cannot be reinstalled, such as my scanner driver and my adobe software that tells me that permanent license to use acrobat has “expired,” while not providing any working links to access support.
Since Windows 10 cannot be relied upon to boot correctly, it MUST provide a means to reach safe mode during the boy process.
I totally agree with your last para.
I am having the same exact problem, you can get to the start up settings screen options by power cycling a few times once the first windows logo comes up after reboot. You may have to try up to 5 times but you should enter recovery mode, that page will give you the error code and you can hit F8 on it to get to the various startup settings including safe mode. Unfortunately I can’t get into safe mode either. Trying other options.
I am having this same issue. Except now, after I have tried all other options it starts up and … fails then goes to a different blue error screen that states” NFTS_FILE_SYSTEM” Reboots on it’s own, then I get stuck at “Choose your keyboard layout.” Rendering my mouse and keyboard inactive and I cannot get out of it.
Richard did you figure it out or not?, i have the same problem and drive me crazy
Ya i had a different issue i was reseting and my pc died and now it just loads the asus logo and keeps repeating
FYI… Yes, there’s not F8/Safe Mode option, but there’s advance option to reset Win 10 and retain files…
** Reboot device… you can keep pressing F12 every second.. You device may boot asking to go into Bio and that is NOT where you want to go.. Hit ESC… Win 10 will now begin to load, you may now see a “Please Wait ” pop up as Win 10 try’s to boot.
**You’ll see a new blue window with options to Reset/repair Win 10, advance Options.. Choose this option and NOT Restart Win 10.
**Eventually you want to reset Win 10 with the option to retain your files or a clean install.. Your choice.
** Just let it reinstall and your good to go.
By the way if you have an Admin assigned to the device it will ask for the Admin password… SO be prepared
Good luck
Nowires01
Thanks man thank you very much cause this fucking lap have bios boot option and windows fail to boot and no f8 working finaly this works thanks again dude
I have a laptop what do i do ._.
As an alternative to digging out a recovery disk, interrupt the startup by powering the computer off when the manufacturers logo or Windows logo is being displayed. Repeat this 3 times, you should then see “loading” appear beneath the logo, at this point allow the computer to continue booting and you will then have the option to try various recovery methods including Safe Mode.
THANKS It works. Now i can work on it. Thanks again!!!!!!
THANK YOU!!!! I have tried like a hundred different solutions in the past few weeks!!! Interrupting during booting logo worked! Thanks again!!!!
Sticky this solution!
Thanks Chris, this fix worked great! You da Man!
Hi Chris,
I tried everything to get my Windows 10 into safety mode (like F8, shift F8 etc) nothing worked. But this solution actually works. I even contact McAfee since my probs started after an update of their software… many Thanks, my laptop is up & running now.
Chris, I have a Dell 7510 on it you have to wait not just when the Logo is displayed but once it starts to load then shut down I only had to due this twice, from there I was able to follow the menus to get into Safe Mode. Thanks
Hi
Thank you for this. Nothing else worked for me, but this : powering off when logo display did it. Thank you once again
Now this is also not working. Second reboot starts automatic repair, and it is not solving the problem. Please help
I had exactly the same problem. Then I read on Asus (https://www.asus.com/support/faq/1013074/) that after a few consecutive boot failures Windows 10 will display a start up screen that will give you a chance to boot in safe mode (and many other options). Though I have an HP laptop it worked as expected. After maybe 4 or 5 (power on, boot fail, power off), Windows came out with the screen shown in Asus Web site. Then I booted in safe mode. Later I rebooted in normal mode and, a miracle happened, this time Windows booted well…
They didn’t mention the last method: while the Windows is booting, you have to reset your PC if you have a dedicated button for that. You should do this about 3 times. Then Windows checks for errors, wait, then the advanced boot menu opens. I hope this helps!
If the boot fails 3 times, you will get automatic repair, then go to troubleshoot
You may need to interrupt it manually using the reset button