Finding Safe Mode in Windows 8 isn’t easy

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	WINDOWS 8[/size][/font] Finding Safe Mode in Windows 8 isn’t easy[/size]
	By Ryan Matthew Pierson When Windows starts behaving badly, booting in Safe Mode has long been a key troubleshooting tool. Like its predecessors, Windows 8 includes a safe-mode boot option, but — as with many things in the new OS — it works a little differently.

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The full text of this column is posted at windowssecrets.com/windows-8/finding-safe-mode-in-windows-8-isnt-easy/[/url] (paid content, opens in a new window/tab).

Columnists typically cannot reply to comments here, but do incorporate the best tips into future columns.[/td]

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I show windows 7 as the default OS although I only have windows 8 installed on this PC. I did do a windows 8 upgrade to the windows 7 on this PC. Is this normal?

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I show windows 7 as the default OS although I only have windows 8 installed on this PC. I did do a windows 8 upgrade to the windows 7 on this PC. Is this normal?

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2408299,00.asp

By default, this screen displays for 30 seconds, and then Windows 8 launches. To change that default to your older OS, choose “Change defaults or other options” from the bottom of this multi-boot screen. Here you can change the timer value and the default boot operating system. You can also use troubleshooting tools like Refreshing or Resetting your PC, and you also have access to advanced options like system recovery and a command prompt.

There’s a different procedure to change from Windows 7 to Windows 8 as the default OS.

From within Windows 7:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Change-the-default-operating-system-for-startup-multiboot

If you have more than one operating system installed on your computer, you can choose which one starts when you turn on your computer. More than one operating system installed on a computer is often called a multiboot configuration.

Open System by clicking the Start button , clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Maintenance, and then clicking System.

Click Advanced System Settings. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

Click the Advanced tab, and then, under Startup and Recovery, click Settings.

Under System startup, in the Default operating system list, click the operating system that you want to use when you turn on or restart your computer.

-- rc primak

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Under other ways to Access Safe Mode, the article states

As with Windows 7, you can access Safe Mode via the media you used to install Windows 8.

This is not true. For some unexplained reason, Microsoft took out the Safe Mode boot option. There is a System Restore option, but not Boot into Safe Mode I have been unable to find any way to boot into Safe Mode without being able to get into Windows 8 proper first. Neither the install media boot, recovery disk boot, F8, nor shift F8 will get you to an advanced boot screen that leads to a Safe Mode boot. This is a definite step backwards in my opinion as i have used booting into Safe Mode as a prime diagnostic tool when fixing client PCs.

Jerry

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Hi, the other way you can access Safe mode in Win8 is by the good old tool Msconfig-Boot option.

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I’m receiving several emails indicating that virtually every step listed here (and tested by myself) doesn’t work for some users in some situations. Meanwhile, the majority of the steps are working for me and when our editorial team tested things the results were mixed. Microsoft indeed needs to address this very confusing SKU difference. I’m also hearing that certain Control Panel categories are named differently on some people’s systems. For example “System and Security” is just named “System” on one reader’s system. Why this is I don’t know, but I will certainly research the issue. Again, the main topic of this post being that finding Safe Mode in Windows 8 isn’t easy. These terribly confusing differences between SKUs don’t help matters. I apologize for anyone NOT able to take full advantages of the tips listed, though I do know they work for at least one person that tried them during testing for this article.

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Under other ways to Access Safe Mode, the article states

This is not true. For some unexplained reason, Microsoft took out the Safe Mode boot option. There is a System Restore option, but not Boot into Safe Mode I have been unable to find any way to boot into Safe Mode without being able to get into Windows 8 proper first. Neither the install media boot, recovery disk boot, F8, nor shift F8 will get you to an advanced boot screen that leads to a Safe Mode boot. This is a definite step backwards in my opinion as i have used booting into Safe Mode as a prime diagnostic tool when fixing client PCs.

Jerry

Who had the brainy idea to remove Safe Mode as a boot option?

Safe Mode (and all of the other “maintenance” modes) was one of the very best ideas Microsoft ever came up with. I remember all of the hoops you had to jump through when troubleshooting a PC before Safe Mode (and VGA Mode, and the other modes) were provided as start up options.

Back then, you could boot to DOS and edit the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files, then reboot, whenever you were working on a PC. It was cumbersome, but it worked. With those options long gone (unless I missed something), I predict that Windows 8.1 will once again have Safe Mode readily available; or someone will come up with a boot disk which will allow you to boot into Safe Mode or some variation of it.

I wonder if this was Ballmer’s idea? He’s been the CEO for the entire Windows 8 development period.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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Unfortunately, you have to be able to boot into a usable Windows 8 to get to MSConfig.

Jerry

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Actually, Windows 8 was Steve Sinofsky’s baby, and he left Microsoft shortly after the product launch.

-- rc primak

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